Curiosity Killed The Cat
by TofuPirate
Summary: A 13 year old girl goes missing, and in an attempt to find her, so does one of the CSI's. Will the rest of the team be able to solve the case before it's too late? Finally Finished!
1. Abducted

**Title: **Curosity Killed The Cat  
**Rating: **T  
**Disclaimer: **No, I don't own CSI or any of the characters  
**Summary:**A 13 year old girl goes missing, and in an attempt to find her, so does one of the CSI's. Will the rest of the team be able to solve the case before it's too late?  
**A/N: **This first chapter probably is quite boringish... but I figured that I'd start the actual... drama-ish, angst-ish junk in the second chapter. This one is pretty much just one of my boring opening chapter dealies. Please review and tell me what you think. Oh yes, and there was an error in this chapter that was pointed out to me.. in which I felt kinda stupid for not realizing it as I wrote it, haha.. good thing you noticed that Krysalys, because I probably wouldn't have, anyways, that's fixed now tee hee.

* * *

**Chapter 1 -** _Abducted_

13 year old Allison Reynolds sat in a car outside of a local grocery store while she waited for her mother to return. She rarely joined her mother when she shopped for groceries, and she always waited in the car as she read a book and listened to music.

Her eyes caught a glimpse of something off in an alley just beside the store and her curiosity took over. Slowly, she set her book down onto the seat of the car and opened the door to get out. In the alley, she saw that there was something sticking out of a garbage dumpster... it looked almost like a human arm.

She walked over to get a closer look at it and was shocked with what she saw. There, inside the dumpster was the dead body of a what looked to be a middle aged woman. The woman's hair appeared to be red, but Allison wasn't sure if that was because it was covered in blood or not.

Quickly, she turned to run and tell someone about what she'd seen, but she felt someone pull her back and slip a rag in her mouth so she couldn't scream. She tried her hardest to struggle and get away, but whoever was trying to keep her back was just too strong.  
Determined not to give up without a fight, she used the heel of her foot to kick her attacker. The attacker fell over onto the ground behind Allison. She pulled the rag out of her mouth and began to scream for help as she ran away.

She didn't get very far before a car pulled up in front of her and the driver pulled her inside. Soon after, her attacker got up and made his way over to the car.

The car sped off with Allison thrown in the back seat and her attacker tieing up her arms.

"Damn! When I call you and tell you to come _now_, then you do exactly as I say! How far away did you park the stinking car anyway? It shouldn't have taken you that long to get here!" the attacker snapped.

* * *

"There's something about when someone abducts a minor that's just so sickening to me," Nick said as he, Greg and Sara made their way to the alley where Allison was taken. 

"You're telling me," Sara replied as the three of them got out of the vehicle and walked over to where David was standing--looking over the body.

Sara walked over to David to get a closer look at the body in the dumpster, while Nick and Greg began to search the area for evidence. After several moments of searching, Greg finally found something.

"Hey you guys. I found some blood. It might just be from the woman in the dumspter, but I'll swab it anyway," he announced.

"I've got a hair over here by the dumpster. It's definitely not from the woman in the dumpster. This hair looks like it's either dark brown or black," Nick stated.

* * *

"Where are you taking me?" Allison asked once the car stopped. 

She felt the person who abducted her press something up against her back as he untied her, and she knew that it was a gun.

"You'll find out soon enough, in the meantime, just keep in mind that I have this... so if you have any crazy ideas about running away, you'd better think twice. Now when I open this door, you are to walk into the house. If you scream, I'll kill you. If you try to run away, I'll kill you. Understood?"

Allison gulped and nodded.

She knew that she had to do exactly what she was told... she didn't want to be killed. Once she stepped out of the car, she quickly walked into the house. The kidnapper and the driver followed right behind her.

Once she was inside, she was tied up again and taken into a small room. It didn't have any windows, and the only pieces of furniture in it was a small bed, and a chair that had definitely seen better days. In a far corner of the room there was an opening that looked almost like a cage. Allison didn't even want to think of what might be in there. Her curiosity was the reason that she was in this mess in the first place, and she wasn't going to let it get her in even more trouble.

Once her kidnapper and the driver had closed and locked the door, leaving her alone in the room, she made her way over onto the bed to sit down and think about what she was going to do. She knew that somehow she needed to escape. Her eyes moved around the room to examine it, trying to figure if there was any possible exit besides the door in which she'd come in. On the floor, she noticed that there were quite a few blood stains.

She gulped.

"I don't think I'm the first to go through this," she said quietly to herself, completely unaware that her kidnapper was watching her.

"You're not the first... and you won't be the last either..."

* * *

Nick carried a dissapointed look on his face when he learned that the hair that he found carried the missing girl's DNA. He sat in the break room trying to figure out what to do next with the case when Greg walked in. 

"I was just talking to Mia," he began.

"And please tell me that you've got something better than what I found out," Nick said.

Greg shook his head.

"The blood found at the scene wasn't from the missing girl, or from the woman in the dumpster. The DNA is male," Greg explained.

"Well did Mia..." Nick tried to ask but Greg cut him off.

"Yes, she ran it through CODIS, and it didn't come up with any matches."

Just then, Sara walked in and Greg broke the bad news to her.

The three of them hoped that they would have better luck with the next piece of trace they found. They all wanted to find the missing girl as soon as they could.


	2. Allure

**A/N:** Okay, thanks to all the peoples who reviewed to the last chapter!

**Gumballfreak111:** Thanks! And here is more added!  
**Krysalys:** It's a good thing that you picked out my mistake, because I probably wouldn't have noticed it! Thanks a bunch! Tee hee  
**kritters03:** Thanks! Haha, and here is an update!  
**snowangel-983:** Yes, there is more coming, and here it is! lol, thanks!  
**Lin:** Awww thanks! Haha, and don't worry, the angst shall start soon, and don't worry, I'll put in lots of Nick stuffs as well! haha  
**Delph:** Thanks, and here's the next chapter  
**lins:** Thanks muchly!  
**csijunky05:** Thanks, and here is an update!  
**witchbsword:**Thanks muchly for reviewing... and yes... Allison is quite the smart character... but maybe that will prove to work against her... or maybe she's not really smart at all.. I'm not really sure haha

I don't think that I forgot anyone... but if I did, I'm very very sorry. Anyways, enough rambling! Because it's the story you want to read and not my ramblingness! haha, review and let me know what you thinnnkk:)

**

* * *

**

**Chapter 2 - **Allure

"Come on, Nick," Greg urged, "I'm sure that if we go back to the crime scene and look harder we'll find something."

Nick shook his head.

"We searched every square inch of that place, we've found all that there is to find. Now, I've got to go help Sara question the vic's mother," Nick replied.

Greg sighed.

"Fine. I'll go look by myself," he stated.

Nick watched Greg walk out the door to his vehicle. Greg then drove to the scene of the crime to take another look for evidence. After a long duration, he hadn't found a thing and finally had to admit defeat. Hanging his head in shame, he returned to his vehicle and went back to the lab.

"Find anything?" Nick asked him when he returned.

Greg shook his head and quickly changed the subject. "Did you and Sara get any information from the mother?"

"Not much. Just that she was inside of the store buying groceries and her daughter was waiting in the car as she usually does," Nick replied.

* * *

Allison hadn't wanted to fall asleep. She feared that the second she closed her eyes that she would be killed. After hours of sitting in the small room, she felt like she couldn't keep her eyes open any longer. Moments later, she woke to the feeling of someone putting something up against her head. Her eyes quickly opened as the kidnapper slapped her. 

"I didn't give you permission to sleep!" he exclaimed.

Allison decided that she had enough. She lifted her foot and used it to kick her kidnapper and then dashed for the door, despite the fact that her hands were still bind behind her. When she made it to the door, she struggled as she turned the knob because her hands were behind her back. She never got the chance to get it open before her kidnapper managed to get up and catch up with her.

"Trying to run from me I see?" he laughed as he pulled her away from the door, "You're just like the others... always trying to escape..."

* * *

"So, we have nothing," Sara stated with a sigh. 

"Pretty much," Greg replied.

"Well, let's just review what very little we do know. Our vic's mother was buying groceries while our vic was waiting in the car. So, she sees something in the dumpster and wants to check it out, maybe?" Nick suggested

"It's possible. You can definitely see the dumpster from the side of the road. Did you guy's find out where their car was parked?" Greg asked.

"Yeah, they were parked right in front of the alley," Sara replied.

Greg reached over to grab his cup of coffee from the table, but in the process he accidently knocked over the glass coffee pot.

"Oops, I'll clean that up," he said, reaching over to pick up the pieces of broken glass.

"So, we should head over there and see if it actually is possible for someone to see a body in the dumpster if they are parked where the mother said they were," Nick stated as he turned to Greg, "Don't pick that stuff up with your bare hands, you're going to cut your..."

"Ouch!" Greg interrupted as he felt something slice his finger.

"What did I just say?" Nick told him as he walked over to the first aid kit to get a bandage for Greg's bleeding finger, "You'd better get that checked out. You're probably going to need stitches, that looks really deep."

"But what about the case? Aren't all of us going to test out that theory?" Greg questioned.

"Nick and I can do that. You just make sure you get that finger looked at," Sara told him.

Reluctantly, Greg decided that they were right, and that he should get a doctor to look at his bleeding finger, he could already see red seeping through the bandage that Nick had just put on it.

As Nick and Sara left to go to the crime scene, Greg drove himself to the doctor's office. Once he arrived, he was told that the cut was quite deep and that he would need to get a few stitches put in it.

After receiving the stitches, Greg decided to head to the crime scene and see if Nick and Sara were still there. He began to feel like they were doing all of the work on their own without his help. Somewhere along the way he thought he saw something in an alley that he'd passed. He turned his vehicle around and stopped it outside of the alley, deciding to check it out. Not wanting to suffer the same fate as Allison, he made sure that he had his gun drawn as he got out of his car and entered the alley. Slowly, he made his way over to the dumpster when he got a closer look at what he'd seen from the road. There was a body hanging out of the dumpster.

It was Allison Reynolds.

Quickly, Greg reached down into his pocket to pull out his cell phone when he felt something hard hit him in the back of the head before he passed out.

* * *

"Sara, lie in the dumpster and stick your arm out of it, and I'll see if I can see it from the road," Nick said. 

Sara nodded and walked over into the dumpster and got inside. Once she was inside she stuck one of her arms out and draped it over the side of the dumpster.

"Yeah, I can definitely see your arm. This must be how the abductor planned on getting a new victim," Nick called out to her.

Sara climbed out of the dumpster and walked over towards him.

"Well if he did this to lure Allison over, how much do you want to bet that the same person did the same thing to the woman that was found in the dumpster. Whoever took Allison, probably has done this before... and if we don't hurry, she's going to end up in a dumpster somewhere and we're going to have another missing person."


	3. Waiting For The Call

**Chapter 3 - **Waiting For The Call

Greg awoke with a massive headache. His hands were tied behind his back and he wasn't sure where he was. Slowly, his eyes scanned the small room that he was in. There was the bed he was lying on, a chair and a small cage-like opening in the far corner.

"Oh great..." Greg said out loud when he noted the stains of blood on the floor.

He wasn't completely sure what had happened to him, but he could only assume that it was the same thing that had happened to Allison. He knew that he had to do something quickly, or else he would be killed.

_Nick and Sara, they will have to find me. They'll realize that I never came back from the doctor. Someone will call 911 about Allison's body. Nick and Sara will be called to check that out, then they'll realize that I was taken. Then they'll find out who did this and find me, _Greg thought to himself.

His thoughts were soon interrupted when he heard the door to the small room open and a large man walked inside. It was the same man who had kidnapped Allison.

"I never expected a CSI to walk into my trap. I always thought that they were smarter than that... I guess I was wrong, wasn't I?" the man laughed.

Greg wasn't sure how to answer. He realized now that it had been stupid to go into the alley by himself.

"Are you always this rude? When you're asked a question, I expect you to answer it!" the man exclaimed.

Greg gulped. He could see the malice burning in the man's eyes and he began to fear for his life.

* * *

"No, you can't be serious..." Nick began. 

Jim Brass had just informed him that someone had called 911 to report a body found in a dumpster. A body that matched Allison's description perfectly.

"Damn... we were too late," he said quietly to himself as he walked off to tell Sara the bad news.

Sara's face fell when Nick explained what Brass had just told him. It hurt to find out that your missing person's case had turned into a murder, but it always hurt more when it involved someone so young.

"All right. Call up Greg and we'll go check it out," Sara replied.

Nick pulled the cell phone out of his pocket to give Greg a call but was surprised when there was no answer.

"That's peculiar. He always has his phone with him," Nick said as he dialed the number again, just to be sure.

Still, there was no answer.

"I'm going to head over to his doctor's... maybe he's still there. You can go to the scene and I'll meet you there okay?" Nick asked.

Sara nodded.

Nick got into his vehicle and drove to Greg's doctor's office. When he arrived, the receptionist explained that he'd already gotten the stitches and that he had left.

"Thank you," Nick told the receptionist before he left.

He got back into his vehicle and decided to call Greg's cell phone another time.

"Hello," a voice said.

Nick knew that it wasn't Greg who answered the phone. It was definitely a woman's voice and it sounded a lot like Sara.

"Sara?" Nick questioned.

"Yeah... you will not believe where I found Greg's phone. It's right beside the dumpster where the vic was found. You don't think..."

Nick felt his heart skip a beat.

"That creep has Greg," Nick felt his grip on the phone get tighter as he spoke.

"We don't know that for sure," Sara pointed out.

"Think about it, Sara. Allison goes missing after seeing a body in a dumpster. Now Allison is the body in the dumpster and we don't know where Greg is. Plus, he had to have been there, how else could his cell phone have gotten there?" Nick replied, "That creep has Greg, and I'll be damned if our friend ends up dead in another dumpster!"

* * *

"So, CSI, you got a name?" the man asked. 

Greg gulped and the man pulled out his gun.

"I said. You got a name?" the man repeated through clenched teeth.

"Greg. It's Greg," he replied, trying not to let the man see how afraid he truly was.

"So, you work with the Las Vegas Crime Lab or something?"

Greg took one look at the gun in the man's hand and knew he'd better tell the truth so he nodded. The man smiled.

"Excellent. This ought to be fun," he said before he stood up and walked out of the room.

A few moments later he returned with a digital camera in his hand.

"Say 'cheese' CSI," he laughed as he took a picture of Greg.

After taking the picture, he left the room once more, locking the door behind him.

_Do I even want to know what he plans to do? He's probably going to call the lab or something... and demand a high ransom. Or maybe he's just going to kill me and rub it in their faces that they couldn't solve the case fast enough to find me, _Greg thought.

"No, that's stupid! It wouldn't happen... and they'll find me..." Greg told himself out loud.

* * *

Nick returned to the lab to take another look and see if Greg was there, but when he didn't see him, he began to panic. 

"What on earth are you looking for?" Grissom asked as he peered his head out of a room.

"Greg. He's missing. Please tell me that you've seen him around here," Nick replied.

Grissom shook his head.

"He's missing?"Grissom questioned.

Nick quickly out lined what had happened and what he thought had happened to Greg, but their conversation was interrupted when a courier came to the front desk to deliver a package. Both Grissom and Nick walked over to see what it was, and were confused to see that it was addressed to all of the CSI's.

"Do you think it could be about Greg?" Nick asked.

"There's no return address, so I'm not sure... I guess we'll have to open it and see," Grissom replied.

They took the package to the lounge and Grissom put on his gloves before he opened it, just in case there was any trace evidence that could be taken off of it if it was about Greg.

Inside of the package was a photograph of Greg and a typed letter. The letter read:

_Hello CSI's.  
I'm sure you've been wondering where your friend went. Well, I hope that this answers your question. It's my understanding that your friend left behind his cell phone, so I'll be using that to communicate with you, if you don't have it... well, that's not my problem. _

"I know where that phone is!" Nick stated as Sara walked into the lab

The second that Nick saw her, he ran over to retrieve the cell phone that she had collected as evidence.

"Hey! What do you think you're doing?" Sara exclaimed when Nick snatched the cell phone from her.

Grissom walked over and explained to her what was going on.

"Now all we can do is wait for the call," Nick said, the cell phone in his hand.


	4. A Close Call

**A/N:** Thanks for everyone who reviewed :) Let me know what you think of this chapter and review if you'd like :) Oh and yes, this is set after Grave Danger, lol :)

* * *

**Chapter 4 - **A Close Call 

Nick agreed to wait by the cell phone until they finally got a call. It seemed like an eternity before he finally heard it ring. Nervously, he picked it up and pressed the "talk" button.

"Hello..." he answered.

"Ah, I see you have the phone. That's good for you, I guess," the man on the other line said.

"Where's Greg?" Nick questioned.

The man laughed.

"Oh, he's here, but you won't get to talk to him... just yet anyway. On the other side of the photograph I sent, there is an address. There is a large tree there, and I want you to drop off exactly one thousand dollars. Just place it in an envelope or something and make sure that it is in that tree. You have exactly 2 hours to get that done, and if you don't drop the money. your friend dies. Also, if I even see a cop in that area when I go to pick up the money... then he dies, understood?"

"Yeah," Nick replied, "after I give you the money, then can I talk to Greg?" Nick asked.

"Of course. Now go and get my money," the man replied before hanging up the phone.

_Why on earth does he want one thousand dollars when he could have asked for a lot more? _Nick wondered to himself.

Nick wasn't sure if he should let anyone else know about the call. He was the only one in the room when it happened, so he figured that he could easily hide it. He _assumed_ that if he let anyone else know about it, they would insist that a police officer go along as well, but then the man would kill Greg.

_I'll just go drop the money by myself. I'll just dip into my savings account, I'm sure there's enough money in there. As long as I've got my gun with me, I'll be fine," _Nick thought to himself.

"Well, so much for going on vacation this year..." Nick said out loud as Sara walked into the room.

"Hear anything from the creep who took Greg?" she questioned.

Nick shook his head. "I've got to head home for a second, okay?"

Nick quickly turned and left the room before Sara had the chance to question him any further. He climbed into his vehicle and drove to the bank to withdrawal the money that he needed. Once he left the bank, he realized that he'd left the photograph with the address back at the lab and he knew he had to retrieve it without anyone seeing him. Trying not to be noticed, Nick slipped back into the lab to retrieve the photograph and was just about to leave when he felt someone grab his arm.

"What do you think you're doing with that?" Sara questioned, not letting go of the grip that she had on Nick's arm.

"Nothing, just let go of me," Nick lied.

He knew that Sara wouldn't want him to go alone to drop off the money.

"I'm not stupid, Nick! What the hell is going on here?" she demanded to know.

"Fine, just come with me," Nick gave in.

The two of them got into Nick's vehicle and he explained to her what was going on. When they arrived at the address on the photograph, Nick got the envelope with the money ready to drop off.

"Nick, this is stupid! What if it is some sort of trap?" Sara cautioned.

It was dark, so it was hard to see if there was someone lurking in the shadows waiting to strike.

"I'll have my gun, and you can keep a look out. Sara, if I don't bring this money, then they are going to kill Greg. It's my fault he's in this mess, I couldn't let him come with us, I had to tell him to go to the doctor and get his finger looked at. This is the least that I can do," Nick explained.

Sara sighed and opened her mouth to protest, but was interrupted by the sound of gunfire. Both Nick and Sara ducked down as bullets began to shatter the windshield.

"I told you this was a bad idea!" Sara shrieked.

The two of them were sure that they were going to be killed until they heard the reassuring sound of sirens.

"Are you two okay?" a familiar voice asked as he peered his head into the vehicle. It was Brass.

"Did you catch the guy?" Sara asked, slowly getting up.

Brass shook his head. "I wish, but the creep must have already been in his vehicle when he was shooting, because as soon as we came, he drove off. Now do you two mind explaining what is going on here?"

"How'd you know to come?" Nick questioned.

"Grissom had told us to check this place out once he saw the address on the back of the photograph... we were running a little late so we finally just got here... lucky for the two of you."

* * *

Greg heard the man stumble back into the house. 

_Oh no, he's back... _Greg thought, fearing that any second the man was going to come in and kill him.

He kept his eyes on the door knob, and his heart skipped a beat when he saw it turning.

"I never got the damn money! And I almost got caught! I ought to shoot you now and get it over with! What do you think, punk?" the man walked into the room, fuming with anger and a gun in his hand.

Greg didn't want to say anything that would make the man angrier, but when he didn't talk, it only enraged the man even more. He raised the gun in his hand, and Greg was sure that he was going to be shot, but instead the man used it to hit him in the side of the head.

"Next time you'll answer me when I ask you a question!" the man boomed before storming out of the room, locking the door behind him.

Greg ran his hand over where the man had hit him. There was blood, and the wound was bigger then Greg thought it was.

_At least he didn't shoot me._

The more he felt the blood come from his head, the more his body began to feel dizzy.

"No, I can't pass out... I have to stay alert... I have to stay awake..." he found himself repeating over and over, mindlessly.


	5. Stupid Mistakes

**A/N: **I'm sorry that this chapter has just taken forever to get written and posted. For reasons beyond my control... (ie. the STUPID computer disk that ATE my freakin' chapter!) I had to start all over, when it took forever to get this one written... stupid stupid computer disk! There, now that that's settled, onto the chapter. Please review and tell me what you think:)

* * *

**Chapter 5 - **Stupid Mistakes

"Do you two want to explain what the heck you were thinking?" Grissom questioned but without waiting for an answer, he continued speaking, "Do you even realize what could have happened? If I hadn't of told Brass to check out that location... if they hadn't been late getting there... you would have been killed! Do you two even realize how serious this is!"

"Look, this isn't Sara's fault. I came up with the stupid idea of going. She didn't even know about it, and when I told her she tried to convince me not to go through with it. This is my fault, not hers," Nick explained, not wanting someone else to take the blame for his actions.

As he spoke, Nick rubbed the wound on his head. He'd gotten it when the man had started firing. It hadn't bled very much, but it was still quite painful.

"All right then. Sara, would you please step out of the room for a moment?" Grissom asked.

Sara nodded and walked out of Grissom's office like he requested.

"I understand _why_ you did this... and I'm trying not to be mad... but you really don't leave me much of a choice here. You go behind my back, you tamper with the evidence, and you almost get you _and_ Sara killed. What do you expect me to do here?"

Nick sighed.

"Suspense me. Fire me. Either one..." Nick replied.

"Just... just go home. I'm sure you can understand why I'm taking you off the case. I think you just need to have some time off. Just go home... okay?" Grissom tried to hide the anger he felt inside.

Nick nodded, and without saying another word he left the lab.

Not too long after Nick had left, Greg's cell phone rang.

"Archie, see if you can trace the call," Grissom instructed before he answered the phone, "Hello."

"This doesn't sound like the person I last talked to," the man on the other line stated.

"That's because it's not the person you last talked to. He's off the case. Now where is Greg?" Grissom questioned.

The fact that Nick wasn't there began to get the man angry.

"He's here. Now let me talk to the person that I talked to before."

"He isn't here for you to talk to. Listen, I don't know why you want to talk to Nick so badly, but he isn't here. So where is Greg?I want to hear from him!" Grissom demanded.

In the background, Grissom could hear the sound of someong getting hit and crying out in pain. He was sure that it sounded like Greg.

"You said you wanted to hear from him, so I hope you heard that. That's what happens when I don't get what I want!" the man exclaimed before hanging up the phone.

"Damn it!'" Grissom shouted.

* * *

Greg winced in pain. The man had smacked him right in the rib cage, and it had been extremely painful. It was very evident that the man was getting angrier and angrier, and probably regretted the fact that he didn't kill Greg when he first abducted him.

"Your co-worker was being uncooperative, and if you don't want to pay for that, then you'll tell me how I can contact Nick," the man stated, his gun drawn, and pointed directly at Greg.

"No."

"What did you just say to me?" the man asked.

Greg tried to swallow all of his fear. He wasn't going to let the man hurt any of his friends.

"I said, no."

"I wasn't asking. I'm _telling_ you that you have to give me his phone number. He owes me money, and I'll be damned if I don't get it. If you don't, you won't be the only one paying for this. That's right... I know where you work... all of your friends will pay for your little attitude. You give me the number, and no one gets hurt... you don't give me the number... it's not just your life on the line," the man explained.

Greg wasn't sure if the man was telling the truth, or just bluffing to scare him. He didn't want to take a risk and end up getting himself, and his friends hurt.

_It's just a phone number. It couldn't hurt... could it? _Greg thought to himself.

* * *

Nick sat at home on his couch, mindlessly flipping through channels on his television. He tried to keep his mind from wandering and worrying about Greg, but sadly, that wasn't working.

"Greg is in trouble and all I can do is sit here!"

Suddenly, his phone rang and he hoped it was someone calling from the lab letting him know that they'd gotten Greg back safely.

He wasn't that lucky.

"Hello," he said as he picked it up.

"Hello Nick. You seem to be forgetting that you owe me money. One thousand dollars? Ringing any bells here?"

Nick immediately knew who had called him. It was the creep who had taken Greg.

"I would have given you the money if you hadn'ttried tokilled me!" Nick exclaimed.

"Oh, so I'm not going to get lucky and capture another stupid CSI?" the man asked.

"Greg wasn't stupid!"

"He went over to the dumpster, alone, without bothering to tell anyone else what he was doing. That sounds pretty stupid to me, and he's not the only stupid one. Look what you went and did! If I'd tried hard enough, I could have killed you. That wouldn't have been fun though. It's better tohear you suffer. I likehearing people suffer, Nick," the man laughed.

His laughter was filled with the vilest evil, and Nick felt as if he was talking to the devil himself.

"You're twisted!" Nick shouted, "What did any of your victims ever do to you?"

For a moment, the man on the other line didn't speak. All Nick heard was silence.


	6. Secrets Of The Past

**A/N: **Sorry that it's taken so long to put this chapter up, but I just couldn't seem to get the ending of this chapter to sound right, so I hope it sounds okay. And I hope that everything still makes sense... because sometimes when I write things start to get all weird and stop making sense. Anyways, enough rambling! Here's the next chapter, and review and let me know what you thought if you'd like to:)

**

* * *

Chapter 6 -** Secrets Of The Past 

"I can't trace the call. For some reason I just keep coming up bupkus. Don't worry, I'll keep working on it," Archie explained.

"Okay, you do that," Grissom replied, walking out of the room.

"Hey, have you heard anything about Greg?" Catherine asked when she saw Grissom walk out into the hallway.

Grissom shook his head. "Not much. The kidnapper called... didn't give much information...wanted to speak with Nick. Archie's having trouble tracing the call," Grissom paused for a moment before he continued to speak, "I want you to work with Sara. Go over everything about the last two victims. Find anything that you can that might tell us who has Greg."

"What about Nick? I thought he was working with Sara."

"He's off the case, I sent him home. Now go help Sara," Grissom answered.

It was obvious that Grissom didn't want to take the conversation any further, so Catherine quickly left to find Sara.

"I'm working with you now. What do we know so far?" Catherine questioned when she finally found Sara.

"Not much. Our murderer lures an unexpecting curious victim into an alley, and the lure used is the body from a previous victim. It's usually placed in a dumpster, and made visible to someone who might be looking in that direction. I looked into the background of the woman that Allison found in the dumpster, and it sent me down a trail that showed that this has happened at least four or five times."

* * *

There was a click. 

"No..." Nick whispered. The kidnapper had hung up the phone.

"What the hell are you looking at!" Greg's kidnapper screamed.

Greg thought of a million smart remarks he could have said, but instead he chose to remain silent. It didn't even matter if he spoke or not, the man was already angry because of something that Nick had said.

"You never listen do you? How many times do I have to tell you to answer a question when you are asked one?" the man bellowed, raising his fist.

Greg closed his eyes. He couldn't brace himself or block any hits because both his hands and feet were tied.

"I don't know," he replied as the man began to hit him.

The man continued to release his anger on Greg, using anything within his reach. Greg thought for sure that he was about to be beaten to death. The man picked up a glass cup from a near by table and smashed it over Greg's head.

"It's not even worth it. I should've killed you the second you got here, but no... I wanted people to suffer slowly. Well you know what? People will suffer--starting with you," the man stood up as he spoke.

Greg breathed a sigh of relief when the man took Greg back to the small room and left, locking the door behind him.

"God I hope they find me soon..." Greg whispered to himself.

He closed his eyes. He didn't have an ounce of energy left in his body. Sleeping wasn't a very smart choice, deep down inside he knew that he had to keep his guard up, but it was becoming so hard. He just wanted to feel like he was safe. He hated having to wonder if he'd live to see the next hour. He hated being held in the captivity of someone who was very capable of murder--someone who had already before.

As much as he wanted to sleep, as he wanted to imagine that none of this was happening, he knew that he couldn't do that. He knew that he had to keep his guard up.

Moments later, he heard the man enter the room once more.

"On your feet," the man ordered.

Greg saw that the man had the gun in his hand, so he knew that he had to do what he was told. Slowly, he rose and stood up.

"Walk over to the far wall," the man pressed the gun to Greg's back and force him to walk over to the wall on the other side of the room.

After ordering Greg not to move, the man bent down at the small cage-like opening and used a key to unlock it, then stood up again.

"Get in there," the man commanded.

Greg didn't want to, but he knew that if he didn't, the man would surely shoot him. You didn't disagree with the person holding a gun behind you. Once Greg knelt down, the man pushed him inside, closed the barred door and replaced the lock on it.

The inside of the cage wasn't as small as it looked on the outside, and Greg had enough room to sit up, and maybe enough to lie down if he curled up his legs. It wasn't very dark, because of the light from the room.

The man soon returned with a glass of water and slowly opened the door to place it inside, making sure his gun was drawn so that Greg wouldn't try to escape.

After locking the cage one last time, the man placed the key on the table and took out his cell phone.

Greg wasn't sure what was going on. He listened to the man telling whoever was on the other line that they needed to come right away, and that there would be a body that he wanted taken across town.

_Oh my god. He's going to kill me and get his friend to hide my body! _Greg's thoughts screamed. He began to panic.

Once the man was finished his phone conversation, he knelt down and stared Greg in the eye, his fingers caressing the trigger on his gun.

"I want to tell you a story. When I was 6 years old, I was walking home from the store. My mother had asked me to picked up milk and eggs. She was going to bake a cake for my birthday party and needed those to make it. I saw something in an alley... in a dumpster. I walked over to see what it was... and it was a dummy. I turned to walk away but someone grabbed me... stuffed me in their car and took me away. After a few days of being held captive and nearly beaten to death, my kidnapper put me in a cage... just like this one. And left me just a glass of water. But once I ran out of water, the kidnapper thought I was asleep, and wanted to take the glass out so he opened the door. I wasn't asleep, so I kicked him in the face and ran. I escaped. But that doesn't change the fact that I had to endure all of that pain. That's why I decided to get revenge on the world. Make others suffer the same way I did. My very first victim was 6 years old. You've never killed someone before... you don't understand... but there's this... this high you get. I wanted more of it. More of the high... more revenge. So I moved on to new victims. But the high started to diminish. Then I caught you. And your friend-- Nick I believe his name was. He cared about you, he wanted you back. Just like my mother cared about me, and wanted me back. My mother had to suffer. I wanted your friend to suffer, and it looks like I've done a good job so far haven't I? But it's about to get better... for me," the man spoke in an eerie tone that sent chills up Greg's spine.

Greg watched in horror as the man raised the gun in his hand, but instead of firing it at him, the man pointed the gun at his own head.

"I'll never have to think about what happened to me ever again," the man laughed as he pulled the trigger.


	7. The Rule Of Three

**A/N: **Thanks for the reviews! Here's a quick update, just because the idea hit me, and I decided to get it written quickly before I forgot it. Review if you'd like and let me know how this chapter was :)

* * *

**Chapter 7 - **The Rule Of Three 

Greg knew that he would have to drink only small bits of the water at a time. A human body could only last 3 days without it, so he would only be able to take a drink from the glass every 3 days, just enough to keep himself alive.

"The rule of three. Three minutes without air, three days without water and three weeks without food," Greg said to himself out loud.

Then he realized something. The man hadn't left any food. Just the water. Greg could keep himself alive for a period of time with just the water... but if he wasn't found in three weeks, he'd die of starvation.

Not long after the kidnapper had shot himself, his friend arrived to do as he was told. To take the body across town. Greg assumed that the kidnapper didn't want the smell to attract anyone to come inside. Greg had pleaded with his kidnapper's friend to let him out, but he didn't have any luck. The kidnapper's friend wrapped the body up in a rug and took it out to his van, without bothering to pay any attention to Greg's desperate pleas.

Once he was alone, Greg started to scream. He screamed at the top of his lungs, just hoping that a neighbour would hear. He screamed until his throat was dry and sore. The kidnapper had probably put in some sort of sound proofing in the walls.

_I can't scream anymore. I can't make my throat sore, because then I'll want water. I have to save the water. I can only drink just enough to keep me alive. _Greg thought to himself.

* * *

"Cath. Take a look at this!" Sara exclaimed, she'd found something peculiar in one of the files. "Look, these cases here... these ones have all happened within the last 5 years. But then there is this one case here... one case that sticks out. It happened over 20 years ago, it's almost the same as the other ones."

Catherine picked up the file and quickly read it. "It says here that the boy was only 6 years old, but he managed to escape. None of the other victims managed to escape, they were killed and used as bait for the next victim. Maybe this case isn't related to the others. It also makes a mention of a cage? Was that in any of the other cases?"

Sara thought for a moment and quickly ruffled through the other files. "No. In all of these ones, the victim was kidnapped and killed in a matter of a few days, then left in a dumpster."

_What about Greg? It'd been more than a few days... was he already dead? No, he couldn't be... he just couldn't be dead._ Sara thought to herself.

"If the same creep has Greg... why hasn't he turned up in a dumpster somewhere? In the case 20 years ago, the boy was left in some cage-like thing, with nothing but a glass of water and he managed to escape. What if the same thing is happening to Greg? What if whoever did this to the person 20 years ago is doing the same thing to Greg?"

"Maybe... I don't know. Why would the murderer do this to someone such a long time ago, stop for 20 years and then strike again?" Catherine questioned.

"I don't know. But we should still look into this. Let's see if we can find where that victim lives now. Maybe we can get some information that could help us with the case," Sara suggested.

* * *

"Damn it!" Nick exclaimed. 

He knew that he had to let everyone at the lab know about the call he'd received, maybe they could trace it and find out where it came from. He picked up his cell phone and dialed the number. He hadn't fully calmed himself down after the phone call with the kidnapper, but he knew he had to let the lab know what happened.

"Grissom, it's Nick. I got a call from the kidnapper," he began in a shaky tone once Grissom answered his phone.

"What did he say? Is Greg all right?" Grissom questioned.

"I don't know if he is or not. He mentioned that I still owed him money. He also mentioned..." Nick found it hard to repeat the conversation. The kidnapper had spoke in an eerie voice that chilled Nick to the bone. It made him fear that Greg had already been killed.

Grissom could tell Nick's voice was uneasy. "Look, just come into the lab, and bring the phone that he called you with. I'll see if Archie can trace it, and when you get here, you have to give every detail of what you heard okay? I'm not putting you back on the case, but your information might be able to help."

"Yeah... yeah okay," Nick replied.

Once he got off the phone, he climbed into his vehicle and drove to the lab, making sure that his cell phone was in his pocket so the call could be traced.

"Here you go Archie. See if you can find out where that Unknown call came from," Grissom said, handing Archie Nick's cell phone.

As they were walking out of the room, Grissom began to ask Nick what the kidnapper had said, but Archie had cut in.

"Umm, Nick... did you realize you have this set to record conversations?" he asked.

Nick gave a confused look. He shook his head. "No..."

Both Grissom and Nick walked back into the room and listened as Archie played back the conversation that Nick had with the kidnapper.

_"Hello." _

"Hello Nick. You seem to be forgetting that you owe me money. One thousand dollars? Ringing any bells here?"

"I would have given you the money if you hadn't tried to kill me!"

Oh, so I'm not going to get lucky and capture another stupid CSI?"

Greg wasn't stupid!"

"He went over to the dumpster, alone, without bothering to tell anyone else what he was doing. That sounds pretty stupid to me, and he's not the only stupid one. Look what you went and did! If I'd tried hard enough, I could have killed you. That wouldn't have been fun though. It's better to hear you suffer. I like hearing people suffer, Nick."

"You're twisted! What did any of your victims ever do to you?"

"Wait a second. Play that again. Right when the guy is asking about the money. I thought I heard something in the background," Grissom said.

Archie nodded and did as he was told. When he played it back, he cut out the audio where the person was talking, and focused in on the sound in the background.

"Sounds like someone, trying to move around. Like they are squirming," Archie stated.

"What if that's Greg? If it is, that means he's still alive!" Nick exclaimed.


	8. Bittersweet Rescue

**A/N:**Well this was going to be the last chapter, but yeah... as I was writing it, I came up with an idea of something else to add to it. Bahaha, so it'll go on for a bit longer! Anyways, I hope you like this chapter and you can let me know what you think by reviewing if you'd like :)

* * *

**Chapter 8-** Bittersweet Rescue

A week had passed and Greg's glass of water was starting to run low. A few days earlier, he had felt as if he was going to pass out, so he'd taken a drink sooner than his "3 day" plan.

_They've got to find me... They will find me. We managed to find Nick when he was kidnapped and buried alive, so they'll find me._ Greg thought. _I just hope they do before it's too late..._

He shifted himself in a new position so that he could lie down and sleep. Sleeping had become the only peaceful time for him. When he was asleep he could forget about everything that was going on and just pretend that everything was okay.

That was until he had the nightmare about it...

_He was inside of the cage and he'd just finished the last bit from the glass of water._

_"They have three days to find me..." he said to himself, his voice was hoarse._

_Suddenly, he heard the sound of someone walking into the room. Once he caught a glimpse of who it was, he screamed out for help.  
__  
It was Nick._

_"Help! I'm in here! Please! Please get me out of here Nick!" Greg screamed, despite his raspy voice._

_Nick acted as if he didn't even hear him. He searched around the room, probably looking for evidence, but said nothing. Greg then heard someone else come into the room-- Sara. He screamed out hoping that she'd hear him, but his voice was starting to give out._

_"Who's making that sound?" Sara asked Nick._

_Greg continued to call out, hoping they'd come over and help him._

_"It's nothing," Nick replied in a cold, bitter tone as he got her to leave the room._

_"Nick! Please! Please get me out of here!" Greg tried to get his friend's attention. _

Finally, Nick acknowledged Greg's desperate pleas and walked over to the cage.

"Nick, thank you. Please get me out of here. There's a key over on the table I think."

Nick just stared at him for a moment, and then a sinister smile came upon his face.

"How does it feel to be trapped?" Nick asked, but without waiting for an answer he laughed and took out his gun, aiming at Greg and firing. After that, he got up and started to walk out, leaving Greg in immense pain.

"Greg's not in here," he said dryly to the others who must have been in the other room.

Right before he walked out of the room, Nick turned back to look at Greg. For an instant, he didn't see Nick's face, but rather, the face of Greg's abductor.

* * *

"Ray Danniels? No... you aren't serious," Catherine couldn't believe what Brass was telling her.

Ray Danniels was the man who had been kidnapped in the case 20 years earlier, and was the man that Catherine and Sara had planned to question.

"Yes. Ray Danniels. He was found dead a few days ago... and he was found in a dumpster," Brass explained.

A look of concern fell upon Catherine's face. "Well is anyone else missing?"

Brass shook his head. "None have been reported. The guy lived here in Vegas. If you still wanted to check out his place I've got the address."

"Yeah..." Catherine replied, "All right. Let me go get Sara."

With that, she walked off to find Sara to inform her of the bad news.

"He's dead?" Sara questioned, once she was told the news.

Catherine nodded.

"Turned up in a dumpster. But so far no one has turned up missing. We can head over and check out Danniels' house. There still might be something there that could help us," she explained getting ready to leave.

"Cath. Wait," Sara began, "I looked further into Danniel's file. The man who kidnapped him was Bill Bowman. He died from a heart attack 10 years ago. He couldn't possibly be behind these more recent cases."

"What are you getting at?"

"Ray Danniels. What if he is behind the recent cases? To get back at the world for what happened to him," Sara suggested.

"Well if he is behind it... then Greg might be at his house! It's not a solid theory, but we'll check it out anyway."

"Yeah, and since Danniels isdead, we don't need a warrant to go find out."

Without saying another word, the two of them rushed out of the room to meet up with Brass.

"Whoa, where are you two going in such a hurry?" Grissom asked when Sara nearly ran into him

"We think we know where Greg is!" Catherine replied, "Come on, we're going over there now."

"I'm coming too," Nick stated, knowing that he wasn't going to take 'no' for an answer.

Grissom didn't have the time to bother telling him he couldn't go. He knew that Nick would argue until he was allowed. If Greg was in that house, Grissom wanted to get to it as soon as he could. He didn't want to take up any of that time arguing with Nick.

The four of them rushed over to Danniels' house, along with Brass, and a few officers. Once inside the house, the officer's quickly looked briefly in each room to make sure there was no sign of a threat before the four CSI's entered. Once they were inside, they split up so each of them could check a different room.

"Greg! Are you in here?" Nick called as he walked into the room with the cage.

Greg recognized Nick's voice and was frightened because of his nightmare. He didn't want to reply.

Nick was about to leave the room when he saw the cage. Quickly, he walked over to it and saw Greg inside.

"You guys! I found him!" Nick yelled out to everyone else, before turning to Greg, "Hey Greggo, were going to get you out of here."

Nick reached for the key on the table just as the others were coming into the room. As quickly as he could, he unlocked the cage so Greg could get out.

"Everything is going to be okay now, Greggo. You can come out it's safe," Nick coaxed when he saw the hesitation in Greg's eyes.

Greg knew deep inside that what happened in his dream wasn't real. But the thought still lingered in his mind: _If the person who kidnapped me did it to get back at the world for what happened to him... who's to say that Nick wouldn't do the same. After all, he was buried alive by his kidnapper..._  
Greg wanted to push the thought out of his head, but he just couldn't get it to leave. As much as he knew Nick was a kind, caring friend, he couldn't take his mind off of the nightmare he'd had.

The truth was, after what he'd gone through, after the nightmare. Greg was scared of Nick. Scared that he might turn out like Ray Danniels' did. Scared that he might hurt him.


	9. Long Road Ahead

**A/N: **A big thanks to everyone who reviewed. :) I wasn't planning on having a chapter written, but since the concert... to my ABSOLUTE FAVORITE BAND EVER (Hedley!) is tomorrow, I couldn't help being superly-hyperly-excited. Therefore, I wrote up a chapter out of that superly-hyperly-excitedness! Annyways, I hope you like this, and let me know what you think if you'd like (man I must say that like EVERY time I write a chapter!) Haha, anyways, here's the chapter!

**

* * *

Chapter 9 - Long Road Ahead**

Once they finally convinced Greg to come out of the cage, the paramedics that Brass had called arrived. Greg had to stay in the hospital for a while because he suffered from malnutrition and slight dehydration. Also, the injuries all over him didn't make things any better.

Nick didn't understand why Greg seemed so afraid of him. He wouldn't come out of the cage until Nick had stepped back. Nick knew exactly how it felt to be in the position that Greg was in. When he'd been buried alive, he was left there, with the small air supply to keep him alive for a period of time. Just like Greg was left in the cage with nothing but a glass of water.

_Doesn't he know I understand what he went through? _Nick thought to himself as he waited for his turn to see Greg.

Nick wasn't the only curious one. Catherine too wondered why Greg seemed to be afraid of Nick. She didn't want to directly come out and ask him, so she decided to take a more subtle approach to the question.

"So, we're all really glad that you're okay. We were really worried about you... especially Nick. I mean, he did go through something similar to you," Catherine told Greg.

"Yeah."

Greg didn't want to say anything. Just being reminded that Nick went through something similar made him fear that Nick would turn out like Danniels did.

"So, I'm sure you'll have to see a shrink before you can return to work."

Greg nodded. "Yeah, not really looking forward to that..."

"Well, you could talk to Nick about that, I mean... he had to see one when he..." Catherine didn't even get a chance to finish her sentence before she was cut off.

"Did you visit me just to talk about Nick?" Greg questioned with a bit of unwanted bitterness. He wanted her to stop talking about him. It was bad enough that soon he was going to have to talk _with_ him.

"No but..." Catherine didn't even bother to finish her train of thought. She knew Greg wasn't going to talk about it, "No. I'm not. So, how are you feeling?"

* * *

Soon after, Nick came in to see Greg. Greg knew that he was going to come and see him, and he knew that he'd have to try and hide his fear. He didn't want Nick to question him about it. He felt stupid that he thought this way about his friend, but he couldn't make himself stop thinking it. 

"How's it going Greggo? Are you feeling okay? You didn't look so good when we found you," Nick said in a cheery voice, hoping that Greg's uneasiness had subsided.

"I'm okay. Better than I was in there," Greg replied, trying to push all of the negative thoughts about Nick out of his mind.

"So are they feeding you that gross stuff from the cafeteria? I remember when I was here, I would do anything to get out of eating hospital food. I even got Warrick to smuggle me in a burger and some fries," Nick laughed.

Greg forced a smile. "Yeah. But it's better than nothing. I mean I haven't eaten in the pastcouple ofdays," Greg explained, trying to hide the shakiness in his voice.

Everytime he looked at Nick he kept having flashes like he did in his dream. He would see the face of Ray Danniels instead of Nick's face. Each time it happened, it scared him immensely, but he didn't want to tell Nick--or anyone-- about it.

"Yeah, I suppose you're right. So... are they making you see a shrink before you can come back to work?" Nick asked, not really thinking much about what he'd said.

Greg nodded. "Yeah. I really don't want to, but I don't have much of a choice."

Nick smiled and sat down in the chair next to his friend. "I know exactly how that feels. Not that keen on the idea of having a complete stranger poke at you with questions about your personal thoughts?"

"Yeah... I wish I could just go back and not have to talk to some stranger."

"Well, since I've been through it. I'll give you some advice to make the time go by faster. Never disagree with the shrink... yeah, they really don't like that one," Nick told him, and it was obvious that he was speaking from experience.

Greg smiled, but Nick wasn't sure if it was genuine or just a fake.

"Oh! And their couches are _much_ more comfortable then you think! Just... don't zone out and fall asleep on them or anything," Nick added.

"You fell asleep?" Greg asked.

"No, but they are so comfortable someone _could_ fall asleep on them," Nick laughed, but was slightly disapointed when Greg didn't laugh as well.

A silence then fell upon both of them until finally Sara came in.

"Well you two are definitely having quite the conversation in here," she said with a sarcastic laugh once she saw that Nick and Greg weren't talking.

"Yeah..." Greg trailed off.

Nick could definitely sense that Greg was still uneasy around him, so he decided to leave and talk to him some other time.

"I should be heading out now. I'll drop by again and see you. Get better soon," Nick smiled and then left the room.

Once Nick left the room, he couldn't help but ask himself why Greg would be acting this way.


	10. The Truth Surfaces

**A/N:** Wow, it kinda feels like it's been a while since I've updated. After the concert, I really couldn't find the time to actually write another chapter, and I when I did have time, I just couldn't get the words to... flow right. But then this weekend I finally got something down, so here it is! Oh yes, and a little sidenote... the part about Catherine might _seem_ insignificant, but it plays a part in the next chapter. lol, just thought I'd mention that. Anyways, thanks to everyone who's reviewed so far and I hope you like this chapter!

**

* * *

Chapter 10 -** The Truth Surfaces 

Greg had dozed off right before Sara had come in to visit him after her shift at work. She decided that he'd probably wake up soon, so she'd wait a bit and see if he did. On the table beside his bed, Sara noticed there were a few magazines, so she picked one up and decided to read while she waited.

Just as Sara was halfway through a "What Color Are You?" quiz to pass the time, she noticed that Greg was starting to talk in his sleep. At first, it was merely a mumble, and no real words could be understood. Sara set down the magazine, becoming intrigued in Greg's sleep talking once the words became clearer.

"Please... come on get me out of here! No...Nick what are you doing? Nick put that down... please put that down...Nick please don't... I thought we were friends! Nick! Don't!" Greg finally awoke as he screamed.

He was relieved to realize it was just another nightmare, but startled to see Sara sitting in the chair next to him.

"How long have you been sitting there?" he asked.

"Long enough," Sara replied, "Were you having a nightmare?"

"No."

Sara wouldn't be so easily fooled.

"So you were talking in your sleep, saying: 'Please get me out', 'Nick, what are you doing?', 'Nick put that down', 'I thought we were friends', 'Nick, please don't!' for no reason at all? It sounds like you were having a nightmare about Nick," Sara told him.

"I said those things in my sleep?"

"Yeah... you did."

"I just had a nightmare, it's no big deal or anything," Greg forced a laugh, but Sara could tell it was fake.

"Does this nightmare have anything to do with why you wouldn't come out of the cage until Nick stepped back?" Sara questioned.

Greg started to tell her no, but he could tell by the look on her face that she wasn't buying his story.

"Just don't tell Nick about the nightmare okay?"

"So what exactly happened in the nightmare?" Sara asked, trying not to sound like a shrink.

Greg outlined it very briefly, leaving out the part about being scared that Nick would turn out like Ray Danniels.

"When you see that shrink... you should really mention that. I wonder why it's focused around Nick," Sara replied.

Greg debated with himself inwardly whether or not he should tell her the whole story. He always felt as if he could trust her, and she's always been there for him if he needed it.

Sara's watch beeped.

"I'd really hate to go. But I haven't sleep in hours, so I should probably go before I become to tired to drive home," she told him with a slight laugh once she realized that Greg probably didn't want to talk about the subject anymore, "I'll come see you tomorrow."

Just as she was about to leave the room, Greg quickly blurted out, "I'm scared that Nick will turn out like the man who took me."

Sara decided that her sleep would have to wait. She walked back over beside Greg again.

"What?" she asked.

"That man who did this to me and the others did it because it was done to him. He wanted revenge on the world because he had to suffer. What if Nick decides he wants revenge because he was buried alive?"

Sara was about to speak but Greg continued talking.

"Nick's face flashed to the face of that man. It happened right after Nick shot me... in the nightmare. Now... I'm... I'm just scared of Nick. Scared that he'll hurt me. I know... I know, it's really stupid."

"It's not stupid. I can definitely see your comparison between Nick's and Danniels' situations, but I know that Nick would never hurt you -- or anyone. Heck, it's Nick, he wouldn't hurt anything. Maybe you should tell him about this. Maybe if you hear it from him that he isn't going to hurt you, maybe it'll make the nightmares go away. I'm not a shrink... so I don't know if it'll help, but it just seems like something you should do," Sara explained.

Greg knew deep inside he'd wouldn't be able to get over the fear long enough to let Nick know what was going on inside of his head. There was a part of him inside that knew Nick wouldn't dream of hurting anyone, even if he'd gone through a traumatic experience, but the fear still consumed the rest of him.

"Yeah, I'm getting out of here soon. Two days I think the doctor told me. I'll tell him then," Greg lied, and hoped that Sara couldn't tell he was lying.

"All right," she replied with a smile.

* * *

Once Greg had gotten out of the hospital, Catherine had told him she'd come over to cook him a huge "Welcome Home" dinner. She was sure that he was tired of eating hospital food. Once she was almost at Greg's house, she realized that she had forgotten to pick something up for the dinner, so she had to turn her vehicle around to go back to the grocery store. 

Nick decided that he would drop by and see Greg, hoping now that he was home that things would be a bit more normal. Even though he knew from experience that they wouldn't be completely normal as of yet.

_These things just take time. _He kept telling himself.

Greg had seemed okay when Nick called him over the phone before he dropped by, so Nick hoped for the best as he walked up to Greg's door and knocked on it.

When he answered it and let Nick inside, it was obvious by the look on Greg's face that he wasn't over whatever was bothering him. Nick was beginning to feel like coming to see him was a bad idea.

"How are you feeling? Finally glad to be out of that hospital I bet," Nick said.

"I'm fine, and yeah, I am glad to be out of there," Greg replied, even though his answer wasn't entirely true.

In the hospital Greg felt as if he was protected, like no one could hurt him, but now that he was back on his own he didn't feel that comfort and protection anymore. Especially when the subject of his nightmares and fear was standing right in front of him.

The two of them weren't sure what to say to each other, and Nick hoped that any second his phone would ring, and that someone needed him to be somewhere. He wanted to be there for his friend, but he was beginning to think that maybe he should hold back until Greg was ready to talk on his own.


	11. Mutual Fear

**A/N:** Firstly, thanks to everyone who reviewed the last chapter! And secondly, I have up to chapter 13 written, but it would be no fun to just post them all right now, so I'll space it out a bit. So updates should hopefully come soon! Ahh yes, one more thing. In this chapter... I guess it occured to me that it sounds a little... overboard. But I really wanted to emphasize the "Mutual Fear" title of the chapter. So if things start sounding really weird... just bare with me, as things will be explained in further chapters, lol I have it all planned out:) Anyways, I hope you enjoy this chapter and feedback is always appreciated.

**

* * *

Chapter 11-** Mutual Fear 

Greg had left the room momentarily, claiming there was something he needed to find. He knew it wasn't a very good excuse, but he was beginning to become more and more uneasy around Nick. He knew that Sara was probably right, that if he just talked to Nick about it, it would clear things up. Still, he feared what Nick's response might be.

Once he was out of the room, he sat down in the hallway far enough out of sight so that Nick didn't see. He felt like his thoughts were getting out of control. It had started out with being just a little scared of Nick, but the more Greg tried to ignore it, the more it turned into full blown fear.

He took a few deep breaths.

"I'm going to tell him," Greg whispered to himself.

Finally, he got up and started to walk back into the room where Nick was. He decided that he had to tell Nick about the nightmare, and about his fear. _It'll all be over once I tell him, _Greg thought to himself. Putting one foot in front of the other very slowly, Greg kept walking until a cord from a near by lamp tripped him, causing him to tumble down onto the carpet.

"Here, let me help you up," Nick offered, after seeing his friend fall.

Nick walked over to where he was and saw that Greg had skinned his elbow on the carpet.

"Ouch, that's got to be painful," Nick said, pointing to his elbow and kneeling down to get a better look at it, "Do you have something to put on that?"

Greg didn't fully hear what Nick had said. He looked around him and felt the fear grip him once again. There he was on the floor and Nick kneeling down just inches away from him, all he needed was the cage and it would be exactly like his nightmare. Nick was still talking to him, asking if he was all right because he wasn't saying anything, but Greg didn't reply. He looked at Nick for a brief moment, but he didn't see Nick's face. It was all too evident who he saw.

_"That's why I decided to get revenge on the world. Make others suffer the same way I did." _

_"I'll never have to think about what happened to me ever again."_

Greg no longer heard Nick asking if he was okay, but rather, he heard Nick saying things that Ray Danniels had said.

He closed his eyes, hoping that any second this would stop, that Nick would just get away from him. But Nick could definitely tell something was wrong with Greg and wanted to help him, completely unaware of what was going through his friend's mind.

_"How does it feel to be trapped?" _

Greg couldn't take it any longer, he opened his eyes and pushed Nick away from him, knocking his friend over.

"Get the hell away from me!"Greg screamed.

"Whoa. Greggo, what's wrong? I just wanted to help you with your elbow," Nick replied.

Greg stood up and picked up a mug of coffee from a near by table and poured out the coffee right onto the carpet. He waved the mug over Nick's head, threatening to hit him with it if he didn't go away.

"Get out! Leave me alone! Just leave!" Greg continued to scream.

He'd let his fear get out of hand. It had consumed him and now he wasn't acting like himself. He didn't give Nick the chance to stand up and walk away before he threw the mug at him, causing it to smash over his head.

Nick wasn't sure what was going on with his friend. He had never seen him like this. Despite the immense pain that he now felt in his head from being hit with the mug, he tried to back away so he could get away like Greg wanted.

Greg leaned over and picked up the biggest piece of broken porcelain. He continued to threaten Nick, not giving him the chance to get up.

_"How does it feel to be trapped, Greg? How does it feel to be trapped?" _

Greg was obviously hallucinating. What had happened to him had a greater effect on him that anyone -- including himself -- had realized.

"Greg, come on you have to let me up. I promise I'll leave... just put that down... please just put that down," Nick pleaded, afraid that if he threw it at him, the jagged edges would cut him.

Just then, there was a knock on the door. Catherine had finally arrived to start making the welcome home dinner that she'd promised.

"Oh, I'll bet that's Sara! I'll bet you're going to tell her that I'm not here!" Greg boomed.

Nick didn't have the slightest clue what his friend was talking about. Greg definitely wasn't thinking straight. He took a few steps closer to Nick, still waving the broken porcelain in his hand.

"You tell her I'm not here and then you kill me! I'm not going to let you!"

"What are you talking about Greg? Why on earth would I kill you? You're my best friend!" Nick protested, hoping that Greg would come to his senses.

"Don't act stupid Nick! I know you're little plan!" Greg exclaimed, holding the porcelain behind his head, ready to throw it.

"Whoa. I guess this is what happens when you start the party without me," Catherine said from behind Greg as she set down the grocery bags and took the piece of porcelain out of his hand.

"How'd you get in here?" Greg questioned, turning around to look at Catherine.

"Your door was open. I heard screaming and thought something was wrong."

Nick used this time to stand up while Greg was facing the other way. He didn't even stop to say anything to Catherine before he left. He figured he'd better leave while he had the chance. Going to see Greg was definitely a bad idea.

"All right. What exactly was going on here?" Catherine asked.

"I don't want to talk about it," Greg replied, sitting down in a near by chair, "Just as long as he's gone..."

Catherine was unsure of what to say to Greg. She was beginning to think that he needed to talk to a professional, and fast.

* * *

Nick quickly got into his vehicle and tried to make sense of what had happened. He was afraid to go back to his house, fearing that Greg might follow him to finish off whatever he was going to do. 

_The fear between them had become mutual._

He felt that the lab would be a safe place to go, so he quickly drove there, occasionally looking in the rear view mirror to see if Greg was following him. Upon arriving at the lab, he had hoped Grissom or Warrick would be there. He knew that they were working overtime on a case and hoped one of them would be there.

Once he walked inside, he found Grissom sitting in his office, reviewing a few papers.

"Nick, what happened to your head? You're bleeding," Grissom said when he got a look at Nick.

Nick didn't reply for a moment. He ran his hand across his head and then saw a few drops of red liquid on his fingers.

"I didn't realize I was bleeding."

"What happened, Nick?" Grissom repeated.

"Something's wrong with Greg. I couldn't go home because I was afraid he'd follow me."

"Nick. What happened?"

Nick then out lined everything that happened. He felt like he could confide in Grissom, even if Grissom chose not to show a lot of emotion.


	12. A Change In Plans

**A/N:** I wasn't gonna post this chapter yet, but then I thought, what the hey! lol, I've been writing like a mad woman lately to this. But haha, I guess that's a good thing for the people reading this, lol because you'll get updates faster :). Anyways, thanks for reviewing to the last chapter, and I hope you all enjoy this one! Remember feedback is always apprieciated, haha :)  
**

* * *

**

**Chapter 12 - **A Change In Plans

"Greg, something happened with Nick didn't it?" Catherine asked.

"I said I didn't want to talk about it," Greg replied.

"All right. How about we go for a drive? Get your mind off what happened," Catherine suggested.

Her real plan was to take Greg to his psychologist that he was instructed to see before he returned to work and have him talk sooner. She knew she'd have to make a phone call and explain what had happened first, but she wasn't sure how to do that without Greg noticing. She felt bad for having to do this behind Greg's back, but after what she'd witnessed, she knew it was something for Greg's own good. Something wasn't right. When you see someone holding up a piece of a broken mug over the head of their best friend and screaming at them, that's usually when the red flag goes up.

"Fine," Greg agreed.

Once Catherine got Greg into her vehicle, she decided that if she stopped at the lab claiming she had to drop something off, she could make the phone call from within there.

"I'll just be a minute. I promised that I would drop these papers off to Grissom, it'll just be a second," Catherine lied.

She felt bad about it, but she knew it had to be done. Greg would never go along willingly, and she was afraid that he'd end up doing something he'd regret if he didn't talk to a professional soon.

Catherine found a few papers in the dashboard and stuffed them in her pocket so her story would be convincing. She quickly walked into the lab and headed for the direction of Grissom's office to use the phone.

"Catherine?" Nick asked when he saw her walk in, "Where's Greg?"

"Outside," Catherine replied, she could see the look of fear creep onto Nick's face when he learned where Greg was. "Gil, I need to use your phone. I really think we need to call a psychologist. I think he needs to speak with someone now. I'm sure Nick filled you in on what happened. He was lucky that I came when I did."

"Yeah. Does Greg know what you're doing?" Grissom questioned.

"No. Do you really think he'd go along willingly?"

"Yeah, but you saw what he did to me, and I had only wanted to help him since he had tripped. Just imagine how he'll react when he finds out you planned for him to see a shrink behind his back," Nick pointed out.

Catherine knew Nick had a point.

"But what can we do? We don't know what's wrong with him and he's not acting like himself. He seemed fixated on hurting you Nick, and it looks like he did. You might want to put something on that head wound. Just imagine what he would have done to you if I hadn't come in when I did. It just goes to show that he's not well. What if he does something to himself?" Catherine asked.

"Maybe we can convince him to go willingly," Grissom suggested.

"Who do you think would be able to convince him best? We know I can't... and he might not listen to you Cath, I mean you _did_ walk in on him and saw what he was about to do to me. Would he listen to you Grissom?" Nick wondered.

"I don't know. I'm not a people person."

For a moment they all stopped to think.

"What about Sara? He's had that little crush on her for who knows how long," Nick stated.

"Do we really want to bring someone else into this? What if he decides to lash out at her?" Grissom questioned.

"Well we've got to do something. Someone is going to have to confront him. Either that or we'll have to go behind his back and do this," Catherine replied.

"Sara probably is the best person to confront him... we might as well give her a call," Grissom gave in, picking up the phone and dialing her number.

"You aren't serious..." Sara said once Grissom explained the situation to her, "Dammit. I thought he said he was going to tell Nick."

"Tell Nick what?" Grissom questioned.

"Tell him about the nightmares, about this thing he's scared of," Sara replied.

"Wait a second. Greg told you what's going on?"

"Yeah. He also said that he was going to tell Nick as soon as he was out of the hospital. I shouldn't have told him to say anything. Is Nick okay? This is probably my fault," Sara explained.

Sara quickly agreed to come over to the lab right away.

"Greg's still outside. He's probably going to suspect something... do you think I should just take him for a quick drive, and then come back and have Sara talk to him?" Catherine asked.

Grissom nodded. "Sounds like a good idea."

Catherine then walked out of the lab and got into her vehicle.

"Sorry that took so long. I was talking to Grissom and I got a bit sidetracked," she told him, not entirely lying, but quickly decided to change the subject. "So, where do you want to go? We can pick up some fast food and save my welcomehome dinner for another time if you'd like."

"Sure. Some french fries would be nice," Greg replied, obviously he'd calmed down.

Shortly after Catherine had left with Greg, Sara arrived at the lab.

"I have to get back to the case. So I hope you guys can get this sorted out. Keep me posted," Grissom told them.

"Ouch, that looks like it hurt. Is that what Greg did?" Sara asked, referring to Nick's head wound.

"Yeah, but it's all right," Nick replied, "Catherine took Greg out for a drive. When he comes back, we need you to talk to him, try and convince him to see a shrink A.S.A.P."

"He told me he was going to tell you what happened. Why he was so scared of you," Sara explained.

"No... he never told me."

"I guess I will then," Sara replied, "He's scared you'll turn out like Ray Danniels. He's scared that you'll want revenge for what happened to you. He's scared that you're going to hurt him."

"Scared I'm going to hurt him? I'm scared_ he's_ going to hurt me," Nick stated, "Why would he think I'd hurt him because of what happened to me? If anything, it makes me sympathize with him more."

"He said he kept having nightmares about it. Where you'd come into the room while he was in the cage. He kept asking for you to open the door and let him out, but you wouldn't. You took out your gun and shot him, and then left the room. He also said something about seeing Danniels' face on you instead of yours."

"That must be why he freaked out when I knelt down to help him up..." Nick thought out loud.


	13. Convincing

**A/N:** Ahh yes, here is another chapter. Alas... writer's block has caught up with me, and I'm stuck halfway through the 15th chapter, so hopefully I can think of how to finish it! Annnywayyysss, here is this chapter. I'd originally planned to put the slight... not so good thing in this chapter, because it's number 13 and all, but it sort of ruined the flow of it, so I decided it would be best put at the very end of the next chapter! Anyways, I should really stop rambling and let you read the chapter! Enjoy!

**

* * *

**

**Chapter 13 -** Convincing

After Greg and Catherine had finished of their order of burgers and fries from Mc. Donalds, Catherine began to think of how she was going to tell Greg that Sara wanted to talk to him. He would surely expect something if she just out of the blue wanted to talk.

Luckily, Catherine didn't have to think up an excuse. Her cell phone rang and she asked Greg to answer it since she was driving.

"Hello," Greg said into the phone.

"Hey... who's this?" it was Sara on the who had called. She didn't recognize Greg's voice and thought she'd dialed the wrong number.

"It's Greg, Catherine asked me to answer her phone for her," Greg replied, "Hold on, I'll give her the phone."

"No, you're actually the person I wanted to talk to," Sara began, "You weren't at you house so I thought you'd be at the lab. I came over here and Grissom told me you had gone for a drive with Catherine."

"Oh... what did you want to talk to me about?" Greg asked.

"Just see if Cath'll drive you back to the lab, I'll talk to you in person okay?"

"All right."

After the phone call, Nick looked at Sara with a surprised look.

"I didn't know you could come up with a story like that just off the top of your head," he laughed.

"Neither did I, but he's coming back here afterwards, and by the sound of things, he's calmed down a bit," Sara replied.

"I'm still not going to be around when he gets here. I don't think we need a repeat of what happened earlier."

When Catherine and Greg arrived at the lab, Sara decided that she would meet him out front to talk, rather than have him come inside and risk seeing Nick.

"I'll head on inside and see if anyone needs help with anything," Catherine said, making her way inside of the building.

"So, what did you want to talk to me about?" Greg asked, almost positive that it would be about Nick.

"I was thinking about what you told me. About the nightmares and how you were scared of Nick. I was thinking that maybe we should give the psychologist a call, and maybe get you an appointment sooner. That way, you could find out what caused the nightmares, get them to stop, and return to work a lot sooner," Sara explained.

"I don't want to see a shrink. I'm fine, it's just a few nightmares," Greg protested.

"But you'll have to see one sooner or later. You know Ecklie won't let you come back to work until you are cleared by a professional."

"Then I won't go back to work."

"Greg, that's crazy. You love it at work, you've been hounding Grissom to put you on the field for ages now, and now that you're on the field, you're just going to quit because you don't want to see a shrink?" Sara questioned.

"I _used _to love it," Greg corrected.

"And why don't you love it anymore?"

"I don't want to talk about it."

"It's because you're scared of Nick... isn't it?"

"No."

This was going to be harder than Sara expected.

"Then why?" Sara questioned.

"You just don't give up, do you?"

Sara smiled. "Nope, now why don't you want to come back to work?"

"If I let you call the shrink will you stop asking me questions? It's bad enough that I have to explain my thoughts to a total stranger..."

"Okay it's a deal. I'll stop asking you questions, if you let me call. Why don't we do that now?"

When Catherine saw Sara walk towards the lab with Greg. She realized there was a part of the plan that they hadn't thought of. How were they going to tell the psychologist about what had happened with Nick, if Greg was standing right there?

She knew she had to think quickly, also, she knew that if Greg came inside, he would surely see Nick.

When Sara and Greg reached the door, Catherine finally thought of something to do.

"Hey, you two finished talking?" Catherine asked with a light laugh.

"Yeah... I'm just about to go call the psychologist for Greg so he can have an appointment sooner," Sara replied, even though she could tell Catherine already knew.

"Hey Greg, why don't I give you a ride back home while Sara calls? She'll probably give you a call to let you know when your appointment is," Catherine offered.

Greg thought for a moment, and decided that he needed a ride home anyway, so he accepted her offer.

With that, Catherine and Greg left the lab and walked out to Catherine's vehicle while Sara went into Grissom's office to use his phone.

"How'd it go?" Grissom asked when he saw Sara come into his office.

"He agreed to let me call. I didn't mention that I knew anything about what happened with Nick. I didn't want to make him upset, I knew he wouldn't let me call if he was upset. Catherine is giving him a ride back to his place," Sara explained.

"He'll get better, Sara," Grissom said when he noted the look of dire concern in her eyes.

"Yeah..." Sara trailed off, "It's my fault. Greg had cut his finger on the glass from the broken coffee pot. We were all going over to the crime scene to test out a theory, and he figured his finger was okay, he wanted to come along. Then I had to say 'Nick and I can do that. You just make sure you get that finger looked at'. If I hadn't made him get his finger checked out, then none of this would ever have happened."

"It's not your fault. It's Ray Danniels' fault. Was it Allison's mom's fault that her daughter got kidnapped?"

"No. She didn't know that Allison was going to walk over to that dumpster," Sara replied.

"Exactly. And you didn't know that Greg would do the same."


	14. Bring In The Professionals

**A/N: **Heh heh, yeah things kinda sorta start getting worse towards the bottom of this. **(dodges rotten tomatoes being thrown)** but yes, here is the next chapter, and thanks to all who reviewed to the last one, and I'll try my hardest to get the next chapter up. I guess in this one... I somewhat dropped extremely slight hints as to what's wrong... I'm not sure, it might seem like that, but that's just because I wrote it and already know what's wrong... is it just me or is this sentence starting to not make sense anymore... Anyways! I'll just stop confusing everyone (and myself) and just let you read the chapter!  
**

* * *

Chapter 14 - **Bring In The Professionals 

Greg's appointment with the psychologist was scheduled for Monday of the next week. He didn't want to go, but he also didn't want his friends to bombard him with questions on why he refused to see a professional.

His psychologist was a woman who looked to be in her late-forties. Slightly wavy blonde hair shaped her face. Her eyes were a faded shade of blue, and had probably been bright when she was in her teenage years.

"Hello Mr. Sanders, you can make yourself comfortable on that couch there," the woman smiled, "I'm Ariel Dunmore."

"Hi," Greg replied as he sat down on the couch.

"You just let me know if it gets too chilly in here. I always find it too hot in here so I usually have the heat turned down." It was obvious that she was trying to make friendly conversation so Greg would feel more comfortable talking with her.

"Okay."

"So, how are you today?"

"I'm all right," Greg replied.

"Well, I suppose we should get right down to it. I'll have to be honest with you, this is probably going to be quite a long boring hour or so. The first meeting... is usually just a lot of me asking questions," Ariel explained.

Greg nodded.

"When we got the call about your appointment, there was something mentioned about nightmares? Do you want to tell me a bit about those?"

_No, I'd rather not thank you very much_, Greg thought to himself. He knew that if he said that out loud he wouldn't get anywhere.

"They aren't much of a big deal. "

"Why don't you tell me exactly what happens in them."

"I'm in the cage... and some guy comes and shoots me," Greg didn't mention that the guy was his friend Nick.

"I see," Ariel wrote something down onto her pad of paper, "So do you have these nightmares often?"

"Sort of."

"How many nights a week?"

Greg knew that he had them almost every time he'd go to sleep, but he also knew that he didn't want to tell her that. He wanted this to be over as soon as possible.

"Three or four," he lied.

She wrote more things onto her pad of paper. Greg was beginning to feel like she could tell when he was lying.

"I've been told that there was a recent... incident that occurred with one of your friends," she flipped through a few of her papers, "Nick I believe his name was. What happened there?"

Greg couldn't believe what he had just heard. _Nick told them! He had to have told them! I can't believe he told them!_

"It wasn't anything big."

"Greg. I think it was something big. Look, if you want to return to work, you're going to have to talk to me. I'm the only one who'll give you the 'okay' to return," Ariel stated.

"All right, all right," Greg gave in as hetold herthat he'd lashed out at Nick, but didn't go into detail about it.

"So, what made you do it?"

"I don't know."

Ariel wrote a few more things down onto her pad of paper. It was beginning to drive Greg crazy that he couldn't see what she was writing. He desperately wanted to be able to read it, but he knew that she would never show him.

"Look, I'm going to be up front with you. I know that the guy in your nightmare was Nick. When we received the call about you, we were told every thing that had happened and decided that we needed to talk to you sooner. Since I'm being honest with you about that, could you please be honest when you're telling me things? I want to be able to clear you as soon as I can so you can go back to work, but I can't unless you cooperate," Ariel explained.

"You know..._every thing_?" Greg asked.

"Maybe not every thing, but I have a good idea of what has recently happened to you," she replied, "What makes you scared of Nick? What made you lash out at him?"

"I don't know. I just got scared, I don't know why, I just did," Greg lied. He didn't want to tell her about what he saw when he looked at Nick that day, what he heard.

After the session, Ariel had a good idea of what was going on with Greg. She also knew that it would be best if Greg was to see a psychiatrist who specialized in what she suspected. That way, if in fact he was suffering from it, a proper diagnosis could be made. It would definitely take a lot of time and assessment in order to be sure.

* * *

Greg didn't like the idea of being told he needed to see someone "more specialized". The psychiartrist whom he was told he now needed to see was a man that looked to be about Grissom's age that went by the name of Mr. Shultz. 

Before the assessment process began, Mr. Shultz explained that they would have to talk quite in depth about what had occurred, and that it might be hard to bring it up. He also explained that it would have to be done to first monitor his reaction to talking about it, and secondly to get to the bottom of things and come up with a solution.

_Great, you're making me feel better about this already,_ Greg thought sarcastically.

"I want you to explain what happened. What happened after you were abducted?" Mr. Shultz questioned.

The tone of his voice made Greg realize that he had to tell the truth. He could tell that Mr. Shultz was trained to tell when someone is lying. Talking about being abducted wasn't very hard, until the part about the cage and the nightmares were mentioned.

"He kept me in this small room for most of the time. Sometimes when he'd make phone calls... he'd make sure that I was in the room to hear it. He... he always got angry when I didn't answer him. I guess he just lost it and put me in that cage," Greg explained.

"Tell me about the cage."

"It wasn't very big. He... he left a glass of water in there for me. He said that it was exactly what had happened to him..." Greg hesitated, he didn't want to talk about it anymore.

Mr. Shultz decided it was time to move on to the next topic of discussion.

"So, these nightmares... are they, re-inactments of what happened to you?"

For a moment Greg didn't speak. He didn't want to talk about the nightmares anymore. He'd told Sara, and she'd told the psychologist. He'd told the psychologist, and she made him see someone "more specialized". He was tired of talking about the nightmares.

He shook his head.

"Then what happens in these nightmares?" Mr. Shultz asked.

Greg shook his head again. He wasn't talking about it. He didn't want to think about it, and if he talked about it, it caused him to think about it. He didn't care if he got cleared, he didn't care about going back to work. He just didn't want to talk about the nightmares anymore. He'd talked about them enough.

"Greg. What happened in the nightmares?" Mr. Shultz repeated in a more persistent tone.

In hopes that everything would just go away, Greg closed his eyes. Once they were closed, the first thing he saw was Nick's face, painted with a malicious smile.

_"How does it feel to be trapped?" _

Nick picked up the gun and aimed it right at Greg.

"No!" Greg gasped, as he opened his eyes to see where he was.

"Greg..." Mr. Shultz began, he was going to ask what had just happened, but didn't get a chance to finish his sentence.

"Just stop asking me questions! If I wouldn't tell Nick what was wrong like Sara wanted... what on earth makes you think that I'm going to tell you! You're a total stranger, I don't even know who the hell you are!" Greg boomed without thinking as he stood up.

"Greg, sit back down. I know you don't want to talk about it. I know it's hard to talk about something like this, but you aren't going to get better if we don't get to the bottom of this," Mr. Shultz explained.

"Then I won't get better," Greg said as he walked towards the door.

Without bothering to look back, he opened the door and walked out.


	15. Hydrofluoric acid

**A/N: **Heh heh... I believe this is another chapter where I'll need to be dodging rotten fruit being thrown my way. I could have been more evil though, I could have ended the whole story here... but nope! Haha, I have plannss, so there should be... well not a whole lot of chapters to come, but a fair amount, because... once again, an idea struck me. Now... knowing me (and you'd think I'd know me... because.. well.. I've lived with me my whole entire life... anyways!) I know I'll probably be writing another chapter tonight, just because when it gets intense-ish like this, I can't stop writing, so you might see a quick update if I get it typed up and I'm not too lazy to post.But this chapter took forever to even get written, since I had to research a whole lot about Hydrofluoric acid. I wasn't sure if I was writing a new chapter, or researching for a Chemistry assignment! Haha, oh well, it was fun.Anyways, enough with ze rambling, here is the chapter! Oh yes, almost forgot, thanks to everyone who reviewed to the last one!

**

* * *

**

**Chapter 15 - **Hydrofluoric acid

"He what?" Catherine couldn't believe what Grissom was telling her.

"He walked out of a session. We got the call this morning, he isn't going to be able to come back to work if he doesn't continue the sessions," Grissom explained.

"This isn't at all like Greg..." Catherine said, more to herself than to Grissom.

"Trauma can do strange things to people."

"I should go over and talk to him. Someone has to get him to go back," Catherine stated.

Grissom gave her an 'I don't think that's a good idea' stare.

"What?" she asked.

"I don't think you should. I just don't think it's a good idea," he replied.

Catherine couldn't believe what Grissom was saying. How could it not be a good idea to convince him to go back? Did Grissom not want Greg to recover and come back to the lab.

"Why isn't it a good idea? Do you think he's better off like this?"

"That's not what I'm saying at all. I just don't think he'll take it very well if you go over and try to get him to go back. Maybe he just needs to discover for himself what's best," Grissom explained, but Catherine still wasn't believing what he was saying.

"So in the meantime... we just wait. Have him act like this, risk having him hurt someone or himself? Is that what we're supposed to do?" Catherine protested.

"Cath, think about it. If you go over there, and ask him to go back, he isn't going to like it. He walked out on the session, because the psychiatrist was telling him to talk about the nightmares. He's not ready to talk. We just have to give him time Cath, he'll talk when he's ready," Grissom told her, and Catherine knew he had a point.

"I just wish there was something I could do..." Catherine trailed off, knowing it was the mother inside of her making her feel that way.

"Just be supportive. Make sure he knows that you care about him, but don't make him feel like you're trying to make him get better right away."

* * *

After her shift, Catherine decided that she would stop by to see Greg. Not to convince him to continue the sessions, but to do what Grissom said. To be supportive. 

"Hey," she smiled when Greg answered the door.

"Why are you here?" Greg questioned, suspecting she was here to make him go back and see the psychiatrist.

"I promised you that welcome home dinner didn't I?" she asked.

The suspicious look left Greg's face, but he still looked as if he didn't want Catherine to be there.

"So what do you say? And no matter what the others in the lab may have told you, I'm _not_ a bad cook," Catherine laughed, trying to make Greg less uneasy.

It didn't seem to be working.

"I'm kind of tired," he told her.

"Oh, well I'll come by another time. Feel free to give me a call, okay?"

Greg nodded, and without saying anything else, he closed his door. Watching through his window, he could see Catherine getting back into her vehicle and driving away. He wondered why she even bothered, he wasn't going back to see the psychiatrist. He didn't want to, he didn't want to talk about it anymore. He didn't want to think about it anymore. He just wanted it to go away.

But it wouldn't go away unless he went back, unless he talked about what happened. And he wasn't going to talk.

However, there was another way to make it stop. _To make everything stop...  
_  
But did he really want to take it that far?

He thought long and hard about it. About if he really could take his own life over this. Was talking about what happened really that hard?

He thought backto the case that Warrick and Sara had worked on. The case where that singer's wife had killed herself. Amelia, that's what her name was. She'd used window cleaner and put it in her wine. He had window cleaner under his sink in the kitchen...

Slowly, he walked in the direction of his sink, and opened the door to the compartment below it. There it was, the bottle of window cleaner. He extended his arm to pick up the bottle and turned it over to read the ingredients.

"Damn... no hydrofluoric acid," he stated out loud. Knowing that's what the chemical inside was that had killed Amelia.

He placed the bottle back under the sink and shut the small door.

_Hydrofluoric acid reacts with calcium along with other things. It's used in industrial cleaning products, and also to unclog drains and get rid of rust._ Greg thought to himself, now being thankful that he'd developed a passion for chemistry and chemical compounds.

He walked to his bathroom, but was disappointed when he saw there was nothing to unclog drains. A small part of him wasscreaming that this was a bad idea.That maybe this was a sign that he shouldn't go through with this.

He wasn't listening.

He picked up the phone and dialed Catherine's number.

She seemed overjoyed that Greg had called her, if only she knew the real reason behind it.

"I know this is probably going to sound stupid, but do you by any chance have something to unclog drains with? You know that stuff that gets rid of the calcium build up and gets rid of rust? I was taking a bath, and then afterwards, I realized that there's something down there that's keeping the water fromgoing down. Must be... rust or something," Greg lied, but Catherine seemed to believe him.

"I might have something around the house... but if I don't, do you want me to pick something up for you? I'd be more than happy to," her voice was cheery, she was glad that Greg had called her. She had no idea what was about to happen.

"No, if you don't have any, I can go pick some up. Thanks anyway," Greg tried to make his voice sound cheery like hers, so maybe she would think that he was getting better. He didn't want to make her suspicious.

"No, I insist. I'll get some for you. Give me a half an hour and I'll be right over with it."

Greg didn't see the point in arguing with her. She was a mother. And mother's always knew how to how to get their way when it came to things like this.

"If you're sure it's not too much trouble... but if you do, then make sure that it's something really strong, I really want to get that thing unclogged."

Catherine said that it wasn't a problem at all, and that she would be over in no time with it. Now, all Greg had to do was wait. Once she arrived with it, he would claim that as soon as he had gotten the drain unclogged, that he was going to take a nap, that way, she wouldn't stay.

When she arrived, she handed Greg the bottle of liquid to clear out the drain and smiled. She truly thought that he was on the verge of turning himself around. She truly thought he was slowly on his way to being his old self again.

She thought it was a good sign to see Greg smile when she handed him the bottle. However, the only reason he smiled was because it contained the magic ingredient he was looking for. _Hydrofluoric acid._

"Thanks so much. After I unclog this drain I'm heading straight to bed and taking a nice long nap," he lied.

"Anytime," she smiled before leaving.

Greg closed the door and got a glass out of his cupboard. He then reached into the fridge and got himself a bottle of beer. Glancing over his shoulder, just to confirm that Catherine had really left, and that she wasn't still standing there behind him, he sighed. He was really going to do this.

He filled the glass half full withbeer, and then unscrewed the top to the bottle that Catherine had given him. Slowly, he poured the liquid into the glass until it was full. Then he placed the cap back onto the bottle.

"I'll never have to talk again."


	16. You'll Understand When You're Better

**A/N: **Oh my goodness, I'm sorry. I'm so sorry that it took this long for me to update this, I was probably killing you all with that suspense. Yikes, I always manage to do that. Blah, so much stuff I've had to do lately, and I had the chapter half written, but I couldn't find the time to actually sit down and write, and when I would write, I would only get to add like one sentence to it, anywho. I have it written now, and I think it might be a little short, but I wanted to stop it there, because it just seemed like a good place to stop it there. You can thank the evil people at Much Music for this chapter being posted. Because if I weren't going insane because of them, I wouldn't have made myself write this to take my mind off of it. Haha, yeah, they put full length songs from Hedley's upcoming CD on their site, and I don't want to ruin the fun of buying the CD and hearing them for the first time... so it's driving me a little crazy.  
Anywho, this is one long ramble, and I'm super sorry for that too! So I'll just stop typing and let you read. Let me know whatcha think!

**

* * *

**

**Chapter 16 - **You'll Understand When You're Better

"Dammit!" Catherine scolded herself, "I didn't give him the gloves!"

She wasn't sure if Greg had a set of his own rubber gloves, and she didn't want him to burn himself on any of the chemicals, so she'd brought a pair for him. Quickly, she got out of her car and went back up to give the gloves to Greg. When she knocked on the door, she didn't get a response and she began to get worried.

_Maybe he already spilled some of the liquid on himself..._ Catherine thought, obviously not having the slightest clue about what was going on inside.

She noticed that the door was unlocked, and the mother inside of her took over, filled with worry as she opened the door.

"Greg, your door was open... I was just making sure you had rubber gloves," Catherine began when she saw the bottle she'd given him on the counter and Greg with the glass full of his lethal concoction up against his mouth.

She tried to convince herself that he was just grabbing a drink before going to unclog the drain, but then Greg spoke.

"I said I didn't want to talk anymore... but no one listened."

"Greg. We did listen. But we knew you had to talk in order to get better. We want you to get better Greg. We want our Greggo back," Catherine told him in a calm voice, knowing that if she upset him, he would surely drink down the poisonous liquid.

For a moment neither of them spoke. Greg still held the glass in his hand, and Catherine feared that any second he would drink it.

"Greg you don't have to do this. You'll get better. I promise," Catherine stated, "I promise you won't have to feel like this anymore. Just trust me. None of us want this to happen to you. We all want you to get better. We want to help you get better. But you have to want to get better."

Greg knew that Catherine wouldn't give up. He knew that she would never let him kill himself. He knew she'd never allow him to drink his lethal concoction.

A part of him wanted to break down, to just start crying, to let out every single emotion he'd ever had bottled up. He knew Catherine would understand. But another part of him wanted to keep his guard up, the part of him knew that Catherine would make him go back to the psychiatrist.

"I'm sorry," he said, as he began to pour the liquid down the drain.

Catherine immediately walked over to him and gave him a reassuring hug.

"You don't have to be sorry. This isn't your fault," she told him, "It's not your fault."

Greg didn't want to give in, but the tiny part of him that was tired with fighting took over _momentarily_.

"I don't want to talk... not yet," he replied.

Catherine understood that Greg wasn't ready to start talking about what happened to him in depth like the psychiatrist had wanted, and she also knew that she wasn't going to leave him by himself. He would have to be monitored so this wouldn't happen again.

"Okay, but you're staying at my place until you're ready, all right?"

It was more of a statement than a question.

Greg protested, claiming that he was more than capable of staying on his own, but Catherine remained persistent. She knew that if this could happen once, it could happen again, and as long as he wasn't seeing a professional, she wanted him to be monitored.

"No. I'm staying here. You've got a daughter to take care of," Greg stated.

"Then we'll call up someone else from the lab and you can stay with them. It's either that or you stay in the psychiatric hospital where they are always watching you. I know you don't want me to call them. Come on Greg, get your things and we'll call Warrick. I'm sure you can stay with him," Catherine replied.

"I said no. Look, I'm fine. I can stay here. I don't want to stay with anyone else. Can't you see that I'm okay?" Greg questioned.

"Greg. I'm sorry, but no... I don't think you are. This is for your own good. None of us want anything happening to you, okay? You need to stay with someone," Catherine answered.

"I told you, no. I'm not going anywhere."

"And I told you, you need to stay with someone. Greg, look I know you can't see this, but I'm really worried about you. Please, if you don't want to come stay with me, I'm sure we can find someone from the lab, and they'll come stay here," Catherine stated.

"No!" Greg boomed, "There isn't anything wrong with me. Just back off and get out of my house!"

"I'm sorry Greg," she said quietly as she took out her cell phone and dialed, "I'm sorry that I have to do this."

Greg knew what she was doing, she was calling the hospital. She was going to get him admitted there, where people were always watching him and he was labeled crazy. He didn't want her to call, he didn't want her to send him there, he didn't want to be forced to talk.

"Catherine. Don't, don't you dare... don't you dare," Greg told her, not in a threatening tone, but in a tone that displayed the weakness he felt inside.

"I'm sorry Greg, this is for your own good. You'll understand when you're better."

Greg had gotten very angry after Catherine had made the phone call, and refused to go anywhere, even though he knew people from the hospital were coming to pick him up.

"How could you do this to me?" Greg screamed.

Catherine tried to explain to him that she wasn't doing it _to_ him, but rather, she was doing this _for_ him. Sadly, Greg wasn't listening.

When the people came to pick Greg up, Catherine could feel the tears forming in her eyes. She hated seeing Greg like this. She watched as Greg glared out the window at her, from within the car that was driving off.

His lips formed the words, "I hate you."


	17. Flashbacks

**A/N: **Hey, just a quick update. I figured I'd update now because school is tomorrow and after that I'll be so busy with that and work and yeah. This isn't much, and don't mind any spelling mistakes. lol.  
The part with the shrink I found out about by reading up on the internet how they well.. "test" to see what's wrong, like... yeah... just read and see... I don't really have time to explain it here:P lmfao, but I hope that it's right. Anyways, sorry that this is short, but I didn't have too much time!

**

* * *

**

**Chapter 17 -** Flashbacks

"Hello, Greg. I'm glad to see you've decided to come back."

Greg had heard that same phrase at least ten times from Mr. Shultz since he had returned to the sessions. But Mr. Shultz was wrong, Greg hadn't _decided_ to come back to the sessions. He didn't have a choice. Catherine had made that call, and they took him away. So now he had to stay at the psychiatric hospital until he was deemed 'suitable to be on his own'.

The weeks began to pass by, and Greg was slowly making progress. They still hadn't gotten him to talk about the nightmares in depth like they psychiatrists had hoped, but it was still good that Greg was slowly opening up. They no longer felt like he might be a threat to himself, but they decided against releasing him.

The upcoming session would be a tough one, and they didn't want to allow him to return home, only to have him get worse, and ruin all of the progress that had been made.

Over the past couple of weeks, the psychiatrists had been monitoring Greg's reaction to certain stimuli-- relating to the event that had occurred. By measuring his reaction, they could either confirm or deny their suspicions.

"Today's the day," Mr. Shultz said quietly to himself while he waited for Greg to be brought in. He knew that it was the day it was time to measure Greg's reaction to talking in depth about the nightmares.

He was unsure of what was going to happen, because of the chaos that had ensued the last time this was attempted. However, he knew that Greg was definitely making immense progress in opening up to talking, and that it was a good time to start talking about the nightmares.

When Greg was brought in, his face was still painted with an uneasy expression. He knew what was going to happen today as well. He'd been told in the last session. He knew that he would have to think about the nightmares again, he knew he was going to have to talk about them.

He hadn't experienced the nightmares as much as he used to, due to the medication he was being given. Most nights, he wouldn't dream at all-- or at least he wouldn't remember any of the dreams. Still, the nightmares had left an imprint on his mind, and no matter how much he wanted it to just fade away, it was still there.

The session began, just as the others. Mr. Shultz would start with small talk, asking Greg how he was feeling, if he'd been getting lots of sleep. The questions that he always asked to open a session.

And then it was time.

"Greg. I want you to close your eyes, and then take a few slow, deep breaths," Mr Shultz began.

Greg did as he was told.

"Keep your eyes closed and continue with that breathing, and then slowly, I want you to start visualizing the cage. Only the cage. Just visualize everything about the cage. And once you're ready, start describing it to me."

Greg bit his lip and continued with the slow breathing. He waited a few seconds before he started to describe the cage.

"It was small... but... not to small."

"Describe it using the present tense."

Greg wasn't sure why, but he repeated himself, this time, using the present tense. Once he was done describing the cage, Mr. Shultz had him move on to describing more of his surroundings. The more in depth Greg got with his descriptions, the more uneasy he became, until finally, it was time to talk about Nick.

Greg's eyes started closing tightly. The more images from the nightmare were in his mind, the tighter he tried to close his eyes.

"Greg, what happens when Nick comes in?" Mr. Shultz asked again, when Greg hadn't given a response.

_"Help! I'm in here! Please! Please get me out of here Nick!" Greg screamed, despite his raspy voice._

_Nick acted as if he didn't even hear him. He searched around the room, probably looking for evidence, but said nothing. Greg then heard someone else come into the room-- Sara. He screamed out hoping that she'd hear him, but his voice was starting to give out._

_"Who's making that sound?" Sara asked Nick._

_Greg continued to call out, hoping they'd come over and help him._

_"It's nothing," Nick replied in a cold, bitter tone as he got her to leave the room._

_"Nick! Please! Please get me out of here!" Greg tried to get his friend's attention. _

_Finally, Nick acknowledged Greg's desperate pleas and walked over to the cage._

_"Nick, thank you. Please get me out of here. There's a key over on the table I think."_

_Nick just stared at him for a moment, and then a sinister smile came upon his face. _

Mr. Shultz could tell that the nightmare was running through Greg's head once again. And his reaction was just as predicted. He didn't want to talk about it, and he didn't want the images in his mind.

Greg's eyes closed tighter and his knuckles were turning white from the tight grip he had on the arms of the chair he was sitting in.

_"How does it feel to be trapped?" _

"How does it feel to be trapped?"

"How does it feel to be trapped?"

The line repeated over and over in Greg's mind. Accompanied by flashes of Nick and Ray Danniels' faces.

"Greg?" Mr. Shultz asked, judging by the distressed look on Greg's face that something was wrong.

_"I'll never have to think about what happened to me ever again." _

"How does it feel to be trapped?"

Greg released his grip from the arms of the chair and placed his hands over his ears, trying to block out the sound of Nick and Ray Danniels' voices.

"Greg? All right, open your eyes," Mr. Shultz told him.

After a few more moments of the sounds and images swirling inside of his head, Greg finally decided that he had enough.

"Stop it! Just stop!" he screamed as his eyes opened.


	18. Shred Of Hope

**A/N:** Hey hey little ones! I'm sorry it's taken me so long to update this! But yeah, I mean what with school, homework and now the fact that I'm working, it just hasn't left a lot of writing time in! But I used one day at school to get half of this done, and FINALLY finished it tonight. I'll try to update sooner.  
Yeah, I'm definitely going to end this soon... but I do have a few ideas for a sequel to _maybe_ write in the future. Depending on if people were interested in reading it, and if I found the time to write it. So anyways, sorry for the delay in the updatingness, and I'll try to be quicker next time! Hope you like the chapter!

**

* * *

**

**Chapter 18 -** Shred Of Hope

"I don't believe this..." Catherine trailed off as she starred at the crime scene to the newest case she'd been assigned to process.

Her eyes scanned the scene, the very sight of it made her clench her fists in anger. _And she rarely did that._ She looked at the body of a middle-aged man hanging limply out of the dumspter.

"But... no," she told herself.

This wasn't the work of Ray Danniels. It couldn't be. Ray Danniels was dead. This had to be the work of some sick copycat.

However, the sight of the scene brought back all of the raw anger inside of her that she felt against the late Ray Danniels. He was the reason that Greg wasn't in a stable state of mind. He was the reason that Greg had wanted to kill himself. Even though he was dead, Catherine still despised him.

"Copycat, it has to be," Grissom stating, seemingly reading Catherine's mind.

"Yeah... So I'll take dumpster?" Catherine asked, even though it was more of a statement than a question, still Grissom nodded in acknowledgement.

David was already at the scene so that the body could be released when it needed to be. It wasn't a very busy shift.

"I've got some I.D." he said, holding up a driver's liscence that he'd taken out of the victim's wallet. he held it up to read it out loud, "Francis Smith, age 31."

"Almost the same age as Greg. Maybe this person was meant as a replacement? Looks sort of like Greg," Catherine suggested, more to herself than to anyone else.

However, she still expected to hear Grissom tell her not to make assumptions and to focus solely on the evidence, using some sort of lyrical, riddle speech that he always seemed to speak in -- always quoting someone or other.

Still, the resemblance between the man in the dumpster and Greg was indefinitely undeniable. Was someone else getting involved in what happened? Or what this just some strange coincidence?

Only time would tell.

But now, all they had was the evidence.

* * *

"I wonder how long it's going to be until Greg comes back..." Sara trailed off as she and Nick drove to the crime scene to meet up with Catherine and Grissom. 

"I'm hoping it'll be soon. Grissom got a call the other day, saying he might come back sooner than expected, he's going back to the sessions," Nick replied

"Grissom told you?" Sara questioned, a bit taken back at the fact that Grissom had failed to mention this tidbit of information to her.

Nick shook his head.

"No, I was standing outside of his office when he got the call. I heard him talking."

"Eavesdropping?" Sara asked.

"You could call it that," Nick answered as he parked the vehicle and started to get out.

When Nick began to walk towards where Catherine and Grissom were, the scene made him uneasy. At first he hadn't seen the body in the dumpster, but when he did, he could feel the blood boiling in his veins. He tried to hold the anger towards Ray Danniels deep inside of him. Emotion was not allowed on a crime scene, and Ray Danniels was dead.

The more he tried to hold it in, the more it fought to be let out. The closer Nick walked to the dumpster, the harder it was to hold in the anger he felt towards Ray Danniels.

"Hey, Nick. Are you okay?" Sara asked, noticing the distressed look depicted on Nick's face.

He knew that this case could have the possibility to be linked to the previous ones, therefore, he had to keep his cool. If there was anyone else involved in what happened to his friend, he would be damned if he let his anger get in the way of catching the person.

"Yeah, I'm good," Nick replied. He wasn't fully lying, he knew that if he just focused on processing the crime, eventually, he'd make his anger towards Ray Danniels subside.

* * *

"Hey, how are we feeling today?" Warrick asked. 

He had the day off, and decided that he would go in and see how Greg was doing.

Greg half smiled and Warrick couldn't tell if it was sincere or fake, but decided that it must have been a good sign.

"Better, I'm really getting tired of all this medication. It really makes a person tired... Had a real down time a couple of days ago... lost it in one of my sessions, but then they toned things down a bit and it's been better. Pretty soon they'll have a diagnosis... at least that's what they say. They said the other day that in a few weeks, maybe a monthI can go home. I'm really looking forward to being out of here," Greg explained. He didn't sound like his old cheerful self, but it was definitely somewhat of an improvement.

"That's great, we'll definitely have to have a party to welcome you back home," Warrick told him, "So, do you know how much longer it'll be until they let you come back to work. Everyone there is definitely missing our Greggo."

Greg smiled, and shrugged his shoulders. "I haven't got a clue, they haven't even mentioned anything about when I'll be going back. I want to go back though... I'm tired of not having anything to do. You wouldn't believe how many times I've had to watch re-runs of _The Simpsons_ that I've seen over a million times just because there isn't anything else to do."

Warrick couldn't help but laugh. He could just picture Greg sitting there being bored out of his mind, watching cartoons he'd seen a million times.

"And you know what's even worse?" Greg asked.

Warrick shook his head.

"In the so called 'rec. room' here... there are about 10 people who will not watch anything but PBS... do you realize how horrible that gets when you're smack dab in the middle of pledge week? It makes me glad they recently moved me into a room with a T.V. set of my own."

Warrick was relieved that Greg was joking and laughing again, it provided some hope that the more the sessions went on, the more likely it was that they were going to get the old Greggo back.


	19. Up In Smoke

**A/N:** Sorry I take so long to update. I tell ya, balancing work, school and homework is pretty darn hard! Oh well! I'll live! lol Anyways, here is the next chapter, I guess the end is a little weird, thank my friend Sam for that. Heck, I was unsure of how to end this and I had no ideas, so she helped me think of this strange twist. So yeah, there isn't going to be many chapters left to this, andI might do a sequel. Would anyone be interested in reading it if I did decide to write one? lol I'm still trying to decide if I even want to write one.. or if I'll have time to.  
Anyways, enough rambling, here is the chapter! I hope you like it!

**

* * *

Chapter 19 -** Up In Smoke

"How are you feeling today Greg?" Mr. Shultz asked.

"I'm good," Greg replied.

"There's something specific that I want to talk to you about today."

Right when Mr. Shultz said those words, Greg felt his entire body tense up. Usually when he said something like that, it wouldn't have a very positive result. It usually meant that he was going to be forced to talk in depth again about the nightmares, or even try to explain them. Greg didn't really want that.

"There is one last thing that we need to talk about. We've covered the topic of your abduction, we've covered the topic about the nightmares... and now, I want you to talk to me about Nick," Mr. Shultz stated.

Greg gulped as he could feel the beads of sweat escaping his pores. They had talked a bit about Nick before in previous sessions, but Greg could tell that this session was going to be harder. He sighed. He knew that this was going to have to happen sooner or later. He was making such progress and he didn't want to ruin it because he was afraid to talk about Nick.

"What do you want me to tell you about Nick?" Greg questioned, not knowing what else to say.

"Well, he had gone through something similar to you, correct? The incident that was all over the news, and in all of the headlines. You know what I'm talking about right?"

Greg nodded.

"And you consider it to be a lot like what happened to you. And what happened to Ray Danniels, am I correct?"

"Yeah," Greg replied quietly.

"And how did that scare you? How exactly did that make you scared of Nick?" Mr. Shultz questioned.

"I don't know," Greg lied, but he could tell by the look on Mr. Shultz's face that he wasn't going to be so easily fooled.

Greg really didn't want to talk about it, it barely made sense in his own mind. It couldn't possibly make sense to someone else. He just wished that he could disappear, and that Mr. Shultz's questioning eyes would stop piercing into him.

"Well, you had mentioned that you were afraid Nick was going to hurt you," Mr. Shultz began.

_No, I don't recall telling you that, it was probably someone from work, someone who called and had me put here who told you that._ Greg thought to himself.

"Well... if Ray Danniels wanted revenge after what happened to him... it just made me think that maybe Nick would too..." Greg explained.

"What about you?"

Greg was confused, what did he have to do with anything. This was about Nick and Ray Danniels.

"What about me?" Greg questioned.

"Well, you went through something too. Does that mean that you're going to lash out and get revenge on the world for what happened to you?"

Greg hadn't thought of it that way before.

* * *

"What kind of killer leaves his fingerprints all over the crime scene?" Nick questioned, after lifting yet another print.

Sara turned her head to answer him, "Prints could be planted."

That didn't seem very likely. If this was a copy cat, they would have known that there weren't any prints left at the original crime scenes.

"That wouldn't be consisitent with the other crime scenes though... Why would a copy cat decide to change that aspect of it?" Nick asked.

Sara shrugged her shoulders and continued to process the scene. The two of them worked in silence until they noticed a strange noise and smell coming from behind the dumpster.

Nick decided that he would try and figure out what was behind the dumpster, so he walked around to the other side of the dumpster and peered behind it. To his surprise he saw a man, presumably homeless judging by the way he was dressed. The man had a book of matches in his hand and carried a smile on his face.

"The crime scene is on fire!" Nick could hear Sara call out, followed by the sound of them struggling to find something to put it out with.

That's what the noise and smell had been. The homeless man had just started a fire in the dumpster that the CSIs were processing.

Before Nick could do anything, the man behind the dumpster pushed his way out and took off running, lighting matches and throwing them behind him along the way. However, since the matches fell upon the pavement, they just ended up putting themselves out.

Nick quickly decided that he would have to run after the man to catch him for what he'd just done to their crime scene.

After Nick had caught the man, they'd called for backup and had the man taken into to be questioned for what he'd done. He sat on one side of the table while Sophia Curtis and Nick were seated at the other end.

"What on earth did you think you were doing?" Sophia questioned.

"Settin' a fire," the man replied dryly.

"We knew that. What we want to know is _why_ you set the fire at our crime scene," Nick corrected.

"I wasn't settin' no fire at your _crime scene_. I was settin' a fire in _my_ dumpster. I got to stay warm too you know," the man stated.

"Did it not occur to your that there was a body sticking out of _your_ dumpster?" Sophia asked.

The man began to fiddle with another book of matches instead of answering the question. This only frustrated Sophia and she demanded that the man hand them over.

"These ain't yours!" the man exclaimed.

Nick joined in and asked for the matches, but the man still refused to give them up. After a period of arguing, Sophia finally reached over and took them from the man.

"You dirty theif! You theif!" the man began to scream as he tried to lunge forward and attack Sophia for taking his matches, but the other officers in the room held him back.

Once they finally had the man calmed down enough, Sophia continued questioning. "Why did you set the fire?" she asked.

"I like fire."

Sophia realized that she wasn't getting anywhere asking about the fire. The man was obviously just a pyromaniac and liked to set fires where he lived.

"Well, since that was _your _dumpster. Did you see who left you the body?"

The man nodded.

"Do you know the person who left it? Or would you be able to tell us what the person looked like?"

"It was me.That body was the body of athief... A Thief...just like you."


	20. Sally

**A/N:** Wow, it's been about what... 2 months since I've updated? Heh, I tell you... for the longest time I had the first half of this written, but I couldn't get any further than that. So I gave up on it for a while. When you work, and go to school and have like a million tests and stuff to worry your head about, writing sort of takes a back seat for a while. But now it's the uh, holidaybreak, and I've got a bit more time on my hands.  
So, I probably never would have gotten this written if I hadn't gone to the concert on Saturday. (Yeap, The Planet Smashers, Hedley and Simple Plan were pretty freakin' awesome). But as I was walking out, I saw this little kid sitting in the stand thingers with her mom or something, and I dunno, the idea sorta just hit me for what I was going to add to this chapter, but yeah. I just had to get it out of my head and onto the computer. Which I did.  
So yeah, I'm definitely going to end this soon, theres about one final twist I'm gonna throw into it, but it'll end sometime in the near future, because I want to have this finished before school starts up again.  
Okay, I'll really stop rambling now. Here's the chapter, and sorry for the long delay.  
**

* * *

Chapter 20 **- Sally 

The man who had taken away the body of Ray Danniels stared at the morning paper as he sipped from his coffee cup as a small chuckle escaped his throat. There on the front page was an article stating that the alleged 'copy-cat killer', was nothing more than a pyromaniac homeless man taking revenge for someone who stole from him.

"I could have been a better copy cat killer than that," the man laughed to himself.

It was the truth. He could easily have pulled it off if killing people was more his style. He'd been there at pretty much all the original crimes. He was Ray Danniels' get away driver. He was even there to witness what happened to Greg, when he had picked up the body of Ray Danniels.

But he knew he couldn't get away with killing anyone. He wasn't as crafty, he wasn't as cunning as his late partner. He could never pull it off, he'd be caught mere hours after he had committed a crime. He knew that's what would happen, so he decided not to follow down the path as his friend. Being the driver, or the lackey... whatever you wanted to call him was fine enough.

But what if the lackey had a conscience? What if this lackey had a deep feeling of regret when he thought of how Greg was doing. Despite the efforts of the team at the lab, the media still managed to get ahold of the story where Greg had wanted to kill himself and it was plastered all over the newspapers.

It gave him a horrible feeling in the pit of his stomach. Much like the one he had felt when he saw that one of Danniels' victims was that young girl. Another reason why he could never be a murderer. He was plagued with a conscience, that most cold blooded serial killers could easily drown out.

However, the voice wouldn't go away. He decided that if he just paid a visit to see Greg, just to make sure he was doing all right, then it would ease his mind and he could move on with his life. Curse the half decent heart he was _blessed_ with.

But he couldn't just walk in and ask to see Greg. Surely Greg would remember his face and turn him in for being an accomplice. He would be sent to jail, unless of course he could change his appearance and make it look like it wasn't really him who was going in.

But it would need a reason. He couldn't just say that he was some random person off of the street who was concerned about the well being of someone he'd never met. No, that wouldn't work.

The man was beginning to feel as if he would never be able to go, until an idea hit him. He would pretend to be a relative of another victim. It wasn't a very good story, and would probably need some work, but it was a start. Sooner or later, the lackey was going to pay a visit to see Greg.

* * *

Greg was seated at a table in the building's recreation room watching some of the other patients play Ping-Pong. He normally didn't spend much time in the rec. room, but he'd already counted the tiles in his room seven times, so he decided it was time he got out for a bit. 

One of the main reasons he didn't leave his room was that even in the rec. room, there wasn't much to do. There was always someone who'd gotten there before you and had already claimed the T.V., or the Ping Pong table, or had already picked up the good magazines.

It made him long to be back in his own home again. He was constantly being reassured that he'd get to return very soon, but 'very soon' seemed to be an eternity away. He felt as if he was stuck. Stuck in time. Like this place was a Wormhole that sucked people in and kept them in this one period of time forever. A place where people checked in, but never checked out.

He wondered if anyone else was feeling like that...

His attention then turned to the small television set, and laughed slightly at the image of a singing skeleton. It was _Tim Burton's The Nightmare Before Christmas._ He'd seen that movie a few times before and began to softly hum along with Jack Skellington.

A young girl, probably no older than seven or eight was seated in front of the television with an older woman-- perhaps a social worker-- at her side. She must've heard Greg's humming, for she rose and walked over to him.

"You like Jack too?" Greg heard her tiny little voice say.

Greg smiled and nodded.

"I like Sally," the little girl smiled, "because that's my name too."

Greg took another look at the young girl. Her blond hair was disheveled and flowing every which way, and her eyes looked as if she was trying to fight off a blank stare. Greg wondered if she'd witnessed something she'd rather not see. Something so horrendous that the very sight of it would be enough to admit a child into a place such as this for her own good. Something like the sights he was forced to see everyday at his work.

His thoughts were interrupted by the sound of the older woman who'd been sitting with the young girl. "Sally, what did I tell you about walking off?" the older woman stated, with a hint of worry in her voice.

Greg shot the older woman a half smile. "We were just talking about the movie. She likes Sally."

The woman looked slightly confused and stared at Greg as if he had two heads. This, of course, made Greg feel slightly uneasy, but he was unsure if he should ask why the woman was acting the way she was.

"She was talking about the movie?"

Greg nodded.

"Are you serious? She hasn't said two words since..." the woman trailed off as if not wanting to bring up the topic of something better left in the past.

"I was humming along with the song. She asked me if I like Jack -- the skeleton who was singing in the movie. And then she told me she liked Sally," Greg explained.


	21. Tell Me That It's Over

**A/N:** Wow, I'm incredibly sorry for not updating in so long. It's been like... what... 6 months maybe? I'm insanely sorry, but I just wasn't sure where I wanted to go with this fic, and I felt that if I were to post a chapter, that it wouldn't be my best work so I decided against it until I really knew what I wanted to do. So, I've decided that this is how it's going to end, and here is the final chapter. I hope you enjoyed this, and again, I'm very sorry for the long time it took for me to update.

Love you guys! Here it is.

* * *

**Chapter 21 - **Tell Me That It's Over

Greg had always pictured the day that he would be allowed to return home to be bright, and sunny. He envisioned a clear blue sky and not a cloud for as far as the eye could see. However, that wasn't the case as he stood in front of the institution with his bags as the overcast sky loomed above him. But it didn't matter, to him, the day couldn't have been more beautiful.

A few weeks before, Mr. Shultz had decided that as long as Greg proved to no longer be a threat to anyone else, or himself, that he was free to return home. He was making an immense amount of progress, and he didn't need frequent session anymore, but rather, just the occasional one to help tie up any loose ends and prevent a relapse.

"It's great to see you're finally going home," Nick stated as he helped load Greg's things into his truck. He'd offered to give his friend a drive back to his place, and help him settle back in. He couldn't have been more glad when Greg had called to ask, and he was really feeling like the tension and fear between them had finally subsided. Greg really _had_ made a lot of progress. He'd finally come to the realization that Nick wasn't going to hurt him.

"Yeah, I'll be glad to be back to eating TV dinners and take out pizza again," Greg smiled as the two friends climbed into Nick's truck and pulled out of the parking lot.

There was still a feeling of awkwardness on the drive to Greg's, and neither of them said much until Greg finally decided that it was time to break the silence.

"I'm really sorry for everything. I'm sorry for freaking out... I'm sorry for what I did... I'm just really sorry," Greg spoke in a soft, yet sincere voice as he turned to look at Nick.

For a moment, Nick didn't speak. It was almost as if he was really at a loss for words. He smiled.

"Don't worry about it, buddy. I'm just glad this is finally over, I'm glad you're okay. We've all been worried about you, you know? Ever since that day when you went missing at the crime scene... things just haven't been the same since you've been gone. I'm sure we'll all be glad when you come back."

Nick stopped. _Greg was coming back... wasn't he?_ He was almost afraid to ask. After what had happened to him, he had debated on whether or not he was going to return to work. With a job like they had, there was always the risk that something could possibly happen that would cost them their life. They'd been the lucky ones, they both made it through, they both survived and made it through, even if it had been a long battle in Greg's case.

Other's hadn't been so lucky. Some don't come out alive from the things that happen on the job.

It was things like this that made a person wonder why they were even doing a job such as this, and after experiencing what both Nick and Greg had, it made a person wonder if maybe they just weren't willing to take the risk.

"You are coming back right?" Nick finally brought himself to ask.

Greg thought for a moment. He really hadn't considered the fact that he was going to have to decide if he wanted to return to working as a CSI or if he wanted to do something that didn't come with such risks. But in the end... it all came down to loving what you do, and that was worth any risk that they were faced with.

"I love what we do, of course I'm coming back," he smiled.

It was truly a warm moment, until the moment was shattered by the sound of screeching brakes. Right in front of Nick's truck was a young girl who'd just run out into the street. If Nick hadn't looked up ahead when he did, he might not have hit the brakes fast enough.

Nick pulled the truck over and they both got out to see if the girl was all right. The second that Greg set his eyes on her, he recognized her immediately – it was Sally.

"Sally, what are you doing out here? Why did you run out into the road, you could have been killed," Greg stated, pulling her aside and off of the road.

"I have to get away from the evil man," she spoke in a voice filled with fear. Greg could see that she was shaking... something had to have happened, but how did she get out of the institution, and run this far?

Before Greg could question on who the "Evil man" was, he saw the figure of a man running away not too far from where they were standing. The man turned, and Greg got a good look at his face. He almost froze in his tracked... he knew who it was.

It was the man who had helped kidnap him – it was the man who'd come to take away the body of Ray Danniels. Greg wasn't sure what this man had to do with Sally, but he knew he had to do something.

"Nick, take Sally back. She's from the institution where I was," Greg ordered.

Nick looked at him in complete confusion, but Greg didn't have time to explain as he took off after the man who was continuing to run away.

"Greg! Where are you going? What the hell is going on here?" Nick called out after his friend, but there was no use. He had to get the little girl back to where she belonged. There was probably people looking for her. He would return to find where Greg was going as soon as he brought back the girl. He had thought about taking her with him to follow Greg, but he didn't want to put the child in any danger.

Reluctantly, he assured Sally that everything was okay, and that he was going to take her back.

"Thank goodness you've found her Mr. Stokes," a woman back at the institution stated, "We've been looking all over for her."

"It's not a problem... but, what exactly is going on? How did she get so far away?" Nick questioned.

The woman sighed, and told Sally to go into the recreation room to watch some TV or play with the toys before she proceeded to explain what was going on.

"A man came in here today... I guess he was a relative of one of the other patients. Sally saw him and started to freak out – calling him an 'evil man', and saying she needed to get away from him. He took one look at her and she lost it and bolted out. We're not even sure who he was, or why she was so scared of him, but as soon as she left, he looked panicked and ran out as well," the woman explained, "I think he might have been involved in what happened to her..."

Nick looked even more confused. He had no idea what was going on, but apparently there was a lot that Greg would have to explain.

"She was almost kidnaped, but someone came by and the kidnappers ran off... he must have been one of the people trying to take her away. That has to be it, I don't know why else she would have been so frightened."

Everything finally clicked inside of Nick's head. Sally must have almost been one of Ray Danniels' victims, she must have been one that got away. This 'evil man' must have been involved with it... and Greg must have recognized him... that's why he went after him...

Without another word he ran out and climbed back into his truck and drove in the direction of where Greg had run after the man. He didn't know if this man was armed or dangerous, so he called Brass and Sophia and filled them in on what was going on, and that they had a possible accomplice of Ray Danniels.

As Nick drove, his eyes scanned the side of the road, looking for any sign of Greg, until finally he spotted him up ahead. The man was curled up on the ground and Greg was standing above him, with his hang clenched in a fist.

"Greg, don't do it! Just walk away," Nick called out as he parked the truck and got out.

"Why not? He deserves it! He helped that creep that took me! He obviously did something to that little girl too! I think he's got this coming!" Greg exclaimed, preparing to give the man on the ground a good smack.

"Greg, just don't. Brass and Sophia are on their way, they'll handle this," Nick tried to explain and calm down his friend... even though deep down inside he wished that he could walk over and beat the tar out of the man that had helped kidnap his friend.

Greg didn't move from the spot where he stood and kept his hand in a clenched fist until the sound of the squad car could be heard approaching.

"You're going to get what you deserve, you bastard," Greg scowled as he proceeded to explain that this was the man who had helped kidnap him.

* * *

"What were you saying about this all being over?" Greg asked, half sarcastically.

The man that Greg had gone after had confessed to being an accomplice of Ray Danniels, and from what they'd heard, he was planning to plead guilty to the charges.

"It really is over... now," Nick replied, only half believing himself. Deep down he knew that he still held on to pieces of what happened to him, and that perhaps he never would be fully over it. Perhaps it was just one of those things you never fully get over.

"I guess so," Greg replied as he walked into his house, "I'll talk to you later."

With that, he closed the door behind him, took off his shoes and walked into his kitchen to pull a beer out of the fridge. He poured it into a large glass, brought it into his living room and switched on the television.

Maybe this was over, or maybe this was just one of those things that stays with you forever...

He took a long sip of his beer and allowed himself to cry.

**A/N:** And that's all she wrote! I hoped you enjoyed coming along for the ride with this, it's probably been over a year that it's taken to write this, I'm not entirely sure, but it's finally over. If I find time... maybe someday in the future I might write a sequel, but I'm not sure if that's going to happen. I guess time will tell. Anyways, thanks for being such awesome readers!


End file.
